In Minecraft you make sticks out of 3 wood planks
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Executive summary
The claim that sticks are made from three wood planks is incorrect: the canonical crafting recipe uses two wooden planks (placed vertically) to produce four sticks, and bamboo or two bamboo items can also be used as alternative inputs (sources: Minecraft crafting guides and the Wiki) [1][2][3].
1. Direct answer: what the recipe actually is
The standard crafting recipe for sticks requires placing two wooden planks in vertically adjacent slots of the crafting grid; that arrangement yields four sticks, not one, and it does not require three planks [1][2]. Multiple authoritative guides and the item database reiterate that sticks are crafted from two planks—any plank type will work in modern versions—which contradicts the “three planks” statement [4][1].
2. Why players might remember “three” — output and efficiency confusion
Players sometimes confuse the number of inputs with outputs: two planks yield four sticks, so misremembering the ratios (inputs vs. outputs) can produce the idea that more wood is needed than actually is [1]. Another source of confusion is bamboo: converting bamboo into bamboo planks before crafting is less efficient (about 2.25 bamboo per stick when routed through planks) than using bamboo directly to make sticks via the two‑bamboo recipe, and guides call out that inefficiency explicitly [5][1].
3. Bamboo, planks, and efficiency nuances
There are two common plank‑based routes and a direct bamboo route: (a) place two wooden planks vertically to make four sticks; (b) use two bamboo items directly in the grid to make sticks; and (c) turn bamboo into bamboo planks and then craft sticks from those planks, which is less bamboo‑efficient and thus usually discouraged for bulk production [1][5][2]. Guides and the Wiki both highlight that bamboo‑to‑plank‑to‑stick conversion consumes more raw bamboo than the direct bamboo stick recipe [5][1].
4. Alternate sources and why recipe accuracy matters
Sticks are widely used in many recipes and can also be obtained by other means—fishing as junk, dead bushes, leaf decay, witch drops, or trading with a fletcher—so while the plank recipe is the fastest day‑one crafting method, it isn’t the only source in the game [6][7]. Knowing the correct two‑plank recipe matters for early‑game tool production and for efficient bulk crafting, because miscounting inputs (e.g., assuming three planks) wastes resources and time [1][4].
5. Misconceptions, reported bugs, and platform quirks
Players sometimes report that mixing different wood plank types in the two‑plank recipe doesn’t work as expected on certain platforms or versions; this has generated feedback posts asking Mojang to allow mixed‑wood plank inputs more consistently, indicating some playable quirks or perceived inconsistencies across editions [8]. However, mainstream documentation and current crafting guides list “two planks (any type)” as the normal method, so the three‑plank claim appears to be a simple error rather than a documented alternate recipe [2][1].
6. Bottom line and reporting limitations
The evidence from multiple crafting guides and the Minecraft Wiki is consistent: sticks are made from two wooden planks (yielding four sticks) or directly from two bamboo, and converting bamboo into planks first is less efficient [2][1][5]. If specific edition/version anomalies exist that require three planks (for example, a heavily modded client or a custom datapack), those are outside the scope of the sources provided and cannot be confirmed here; the vanilla game documentation cited supports the two‑plank recipe [4][3].