Stairs and slabs material math — stonecutter vs crafting table
KangJuFam · 2026-09-17
A pattern legend lists stairs and slabs separately — dark_prismarine_stairs 268, say. But what you actually gather is the base block, and how much of it you need depends on where you make the stairs. This guide puts the difference into formulas and checks them against real KangJuFam patterns.
Two ways to make them
| Crafting table | Stonecutter | |
|---|---|---|
| Stairs | 6 blocks → 4 stairs | 1 block → 1 stair |
| Slabs | 3 blocks → 6 slabs | 1 block → 2 slabs |
| Works with | wood and stone | stone-type blocks only (no wood) |
Slabs cost the same either way — one block per two slabs — except that a crafting table makes them six at a time, so you round up. The difference is stairs: a crafting table spends 1.5 blocks per stair, a stonecutter 1. On a stair-heavy roof, a stonecutter saves a third of the base material.
As formulas, for S stairs and L slabs:
- Crafting table:
ceil(S ÷ 4) × 6+ceil(L ÷ 6) × 3 - Stonecutter:
S+ceil(L ÷ 2)
A stonecutter costs 3 stone and 1 iron ingot, so for any build with more than a few dozen stone stairs it is the first thing worth making.
Nine patterns compared
The table takes only the materials in KangJuFam patterns that come as stairs or slabs, and adds the full blocks of the same material to get total base material.
| Pattern | Material | Blocks · stairs · slabs | Stonecutter | Crafting table |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Korean Palace | Dark prismarine | 346 · 320 · 120 | 726 | 886 |
| Hanok with Blue Tiles | Dark prismarine | 376 · 268 · 90 | 689 | 823 |
| Oak Cottage | Dark oak planks | 680 · 288 · 72 | n/a | 1,148 |
| Cozy Cottage | Red sandstone | 7 · 89 · 51 | 122 | 172 |
| Stack Villa #07 | Smooth quartz | 1,225 · 0 · 235 | 1,343 | 1,345 |
| Stack Villa #09 | Smooth sandstone | 803 · 0 · 219 | 913 | 914 |
| Sky Villa #08 | Smooth sandstone | 978 · 0 · 184 | 1,070 | 1,071 |
| Sky Villa #10 | Smooth stone | 972 · 0 · 184 | 1,064 | 1,065 |
Two things stand out.
- Traditional roofs full of stairs show a big gap. 160 blocks for the palace, 134 for the hanok. Each dark prismarine is 8 shards and an ink sac, so a stonecutter saves the palace builder 1,280 shards and 160 ink sacs.
- Modern villas that use only slabs show almost none. The four villas have barely any stairs, so the only difference is the one or two slabs left over from crafting in sixes.
Wooden roofs: crafting table only
A stonecutter cannot cut wood. The Oak Cottage's 288 dark oak stairs can only be crafted, costing 432 planks, and its 72 slabs another 36. With the 680 roof planks that is 1,148 planks, or 287 dark oak logs (1 log → 4 planks). For wooden roofs there is no shortcut — gather plenty of logs.
Doing it for any pattern
- Find the legend rows ending in
_stairsand_slaband group them by base material. - Use the stonecutter formula for stone-type materials and the crafting formula for wood.
- Add the count of the plain block of the same material. That sum is what to gather.
- If the base block is itself crafted (dark prismarine ← shards, smooth sandstone ← sandstone ← sand), multiply down one step at a time.
Every pattern page already has this worked out for its building, in the section on gathering materials.