Terraria is a game about Mining and Crafting, but unlike a certain other game about those things, it has a large variety of crafting stations that all do a ton of different things. There’s a reason it has earned a reputation for its 20-item long crafting trees, there are just a ton of options, and sometimes those options give you even more crafting stations.
One such crafting station is the Sawmill, made on a workbench using items crafted with a furnace and an anvil. This crafting station takes three other crafting stations to make, but at the very least, it is handy for builders.
Embark on a boundless adventure in the pixelated sandbox world of Terraria, where you can dig, build, and explore to your heart's content. With endless possibilities for creativity and discovery, join millions of players in crafting your own epic journey.
Bottom Line Up Front
The Sawmill mainly uses wood or other materials and turns them into furniture, display pieces, and other aesthetic items. It is also the only way to craft Beds, Clocks, and Bookcases, which are all very useful in their own right. You can make it with Wood, Chain, and Iron/Lead.
Key Info
- Item Type:Â Crafting Station
- Usage:Â Crafting Furniture Items
- Found Naturally:Â No
- Difficulty To Obtain:Â Little to None
- Availability:Â Very Start of the Game
- Rarity:Â White
How to Get a Sawmill
Some stations, such as the Loom or Anvil, can naturally generate around the world. The Sawmill, however, is an exception to these and can only be crafted at a workbench, using:
- 10 Wood
- 2 Iron/Lead Bar (Crafted from their ore at a furnace)
- Chain (Made from one Iron/Lead bar at an anvil)
Once you’ve crafted all of these things together, you can place down your Sawmill and use it just as you use the workbench or the anvil, which means tons of decorative or functional items for days.
The Types of Sawmill Creations
Everything you can make in a sawmill falls into one of 8 things, with a few exceptions that I’ll bring up as they come about in this Sawmill Terraria guide.
Usually, the material you choose can be crafted into a Bed, Bookcase, Clock, Bathtub, Dresser, Piano, Sofa, or Toilet, with some others having extra Sawmill crafting recipes, namely many generic wood recipes.
Bed
Perhaps the most practical and definite reason to acquire a sawmill in the first place. Ever since 1.4, you could right-click on a bed to sleep in it, making time pass faster as long as an event such as the Blood Moon isn’t occurring.
Incredibly useful, if you’ve ever struggled with fishing quests requiring a day to pass between each one, you should consider a bed. They are always made with 15 of your choice of material and five silk, made with cobwebs at a loom.
Bookcase
This one is a less-than-obvious crafting station that is rarely used by anything other than the mage class. However, it also fits nicely in any library or witch’s tower you want to create in this game, so consider it suitable for utility and decoration.
The Bookcase is crafted with 20 of your chosen material and ten books, either found in the dungeon or bought from the Wizard in hardmode. You can likely find one in the Underworld or a Living Tree before this. This is used to craft Hardmode tomes, namely the Cursed Flames, Crystal Storm, and Golden Shower.
Clock
While you could make a watch at a table and chair, the clock lets you check the time without detriment to your inventory and is just placed wherever you want it. Checking the time is mainly helpful for seeing if it is 7:30 PM, which would let you spawn an exclusive nighttime boss.
A Clock is easily made from 10 of your material, 3 Iron bars, and six glass, which is smelted in a furnace from sand. Being around the placed down clock will give you a basic look at the time, but right-clicking tells you the exact time.
Bathtub
The Bathtub is mainly used as a table for NPC housing purposes and not much more. Weirdly, you can’t sit in it, but if you want one for decoration, it is just 14 of your choice of material with little else in the way of usefulness.
Dresser
The Dresser is not only a table alternative for NPC housings but can also have bottles placed on it, and it functions exactly like a chest with its bottom drawer and a way to change your clothing for the top drawer.
While the lack of an Iron/Lead requirement may lead you to believe this is a better storage option than chests, do note that it takes 16 of the material you’re using instead of 8 materials and two iron. It also takes up an extra block of width and is significantly harder to interact with. I think having one of these is excellent for changing appearance, though.
Piano
Another item primarily for aesthetics, the Piano is a table for NPC houses; you can place bottles on it. You can make it if you have 15 materials, four bones, and a book to craft it, but it ultimately does nothing.
I think it would be awesome if we could sit down and play it and have other players hear, similar to the different musical instruments in the game, but sometimes cool features are just not meant to be.
Sofa
Though if I ever want a couch in Terraria, I’ll always opt for the Skeletron drop, Chippy’s Couch; crafting your own sofa isn’t too difficult and will usually fit better into the aesthetics of what you’re building.
A Sofa will take 5 of your material and two silk from cobwebs at a loom and essentially functions as three separate chairs. This works as your chair for NPC houses and is fun sitting down with other players.
Toilet
Okay, hear me out. While being a chair for every material type the Sawmill can use, this is also one of the most valuable creations despite being pretty gross. It only takes 6 of your material and has various benefits if you’re willing to go through with some unpleasant stuff.
If you activate them with wire, they will explode with sewage, which is just visual but still nasty. Even worse in grossness, though, you can sit on it while having the buffs from Food active, and you will get poo blocks. These blocks have a variety of uses, but namely, you can use them to break a fall of any height or make fertilizer to grow trees instantly.
Types of Materials
While not every material in the game can be used to make furniture with the Sawmill, every material you can use will give you a different look and aesthetic. This guide will show you every type of material to use with it and some miscellaneous extras you can make with certain materials.
Wood
The default wood type you find in the Forest biome will lead to the widest variety of crafting recipes with the Sawmill; on top of the default ones, you can also make a ton of other things with it, so we’ll get those out of the way.
- The Loom is one you should make. It’s another crafting table that, among other things, allows you to craft Silk and certain vanity and mage items. It can be naturally generated in underground houses, but if you haven’t found one, feel free to craft one.
- The Banquet Table and Bar are made of 8 wood and different tables.
- The Blacksmith, Carpentry, Helmet, Spear, and Sword Racks are all made with 12 pieces of wood and three pieces of iron each, and their only purpose is placing them on walls for decoration.
- The Barrel is the same as a chest, and only it takes nine pieces of wood and one iron to craft, and only at a sawmill.
- The Bar Stool (made with four pieces of wood), the Bench (8 wood), the Picnic Table (12 pieces of wood), and the Fancy Picnic Table (12 pieces of wood, three silk) are all just chairs, with the tables and Bench seating multiple people.
- The Item Frame (6 Wood) and Weapon Rack (10 Wood) are both for displaying items on your wall, with the weapon rack being specifically for tools and weapons. I miss item frame duplication so much. Does anyone else remember when you could sell weapon racks for swift and easy money?
- The Keg is made with 14 pieces of wood and is used purely for brewing ale. You can easily do this by crafting a mug using one piece of glass at a furnace. Then, when you stand near the Keg, you can prepare the ale. I would buy it from the Tavernkeep, though.
- Wooden Beams are made with one wood and are blocks placed on the foreground layer that you can walk through (similar to tables and chairs). They are entirely decorative.
- Planked Wall is the wall you’ll often find underground, and it is made at the Sawmill with one stone block and one piece of wood. It is excellent for decorating underground builds but not much else.
- The Hat Rack is made with 16 pieces of wood and does precisely what you’d expect, allowing you to place up to 3 helmet or hat items on it for decorative purposes.
- The Mannequin and Womannequin are both made with 20 pieces of wood, and both store armor and accessories, mainly to decorate your base with the flashy and cool stuff you’ve collected throughout the game.
- The Target Dummy is the last item on this long list, made with 20 pieces of wood and 50 hay (collected using a scythe from the merchant); it is typically used to test your damage per second using the DPS meter from the traveling merchant.
Other than these special items, the actual furniture itself is pretty much just the most basic form of all of these items. If you have a super basic-looking base or want something that won’t clash with anything else, then feel free to go for these.
Boreal Wood
Boreal wood has its type of beam, just like regular wood. However, the furniture itself has a bit more of a darker, more distinguished, and fancy aesthetic to it. It matches the wood quite well and fits great in a mansion built on a hill in the tundra.
Rich Mahogany
The pink jungle wood also has beams, and it is kind of… odd. I don’t know how I feel about this set or what situation you’d have it in. If you’re going to put this in any build, it’s probably because it’s either a jungle build or a pink one, but now we have bamboo and coral furniture for both of those. Full funky, though.
Palm Wood
This lovely beach wood has a bench and is an excellent aesthetic for any ocean-side resort you want to build. It has quite a beautiful rounded and beach-life style that makes it great for where you get it. I’d say go for Cactus for desert builds, but this wood is also pleasant.
Ebonwood
The Corruption wood may require heading into a dangerous biome, but the furniture you can make looks sick. I love the washed-out purple and red aesthetic, especially for a worn-down castle or your weirdly sinister looking home.
Shadewood
Crimson’s wood looks almost the same as the Corruption equivalent, just with less purple and more blue. It is gray with a less washed-out red and can be used for just about the same situations but even more sinister.
Pearlwood
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A very light-colored and light teal wood set is precisely what you’d expect from the hallowed. This would be excellent for an underwater base or a still-up-and-lived-in regal town with bright and light colors. If only it weren’t hard mode-exclusive, which is usually when I stop thinking about building cool things.
Dynasty Wood
An incredibly unique set made with wood sold exclusively by the traveling merchant. Dynasty wood, in general, serves the explicit purpose of being for Asian-inspired architecture, namely making historic Japanese and Chinese-inspired buildings. This furniture helps serve that purpose very well and looks great doing it.
Spooky Wood
The Spooky set, in general, is a bit of an enigma to me. Sure, it looks nice, having that Halloween aesthetic you’d expect, but it is challenging to get, requiring the Pumpkin Moon to be fought many times over to obtain a significant amount. So again, it looks fine and would be great in any horror-themed build, but I can’t recommend it in terms of practicality.
Ash Wood
The newest wood type, added in the latest update to Terraria, Ash Wood makes for a delightfully withered-looking set. Although it has a similar color palette to Ebonwood, it stands out in how the furniture is designed, being made of twisting vines and looking pretty creepy and cryptic.
Balloon
The absolute silliest set around, Balloon furniture will be there for every clown who needs it. It’s exceptionally high contrast, colorful, and will fit inside any insane builds you make that hurt my eyes. You can easily buy balloon blocks during a party from the Party Girl and make this furniture.
Bamboo
Using bamboo, you can make large bamboo, a more significant and bundled block than usual. Otherwise, it makes some pleasant green furniture that will fit in any jungle building or any structure overrun with nature.
Cactus
This prickly furniture would be very uncomfortable to use (imagine sitting in a cactus bathtub, yeesh.) but also looks great in the Desert. I recommend it because the Cactus will naturally grow back on any sand, with no sapling or seed needing to be placed.
Crystal
A lavish and extremely purple furniture set, crystal creations are made in hardmode using the crystals that grow on underground pearlstone. I love this set and tend to use it on later bases when I’m trying to make something that looks otherworldly and awesome.
Granite
This set comes with a Column that works like the wooden beams do, and it also looks quite nice. It has a space-like texture while still looking incredibly smooth and deep blue. Although I love this set, I wish smooth granite didn’t require going underground, finding a somewhat uncommon biome, mining it all up, and crafting it into smooth blocks. But at least it’s not an unpleasant shade of red.
Marble
An extremely pristine-looking white set, great for museums or just the fanciest builds you could ever imagine. This set comes in the same way the previous one does, just in the white marble biome instead, with less renewable methods of getting the block itself.
Martian Conduit Plating
Possibly the weirdest-looking set out there but on purpose this time. You’ll get a ton of conduit plating just from doing the martian madness event once, so if you ever want a bunch of furniture for an outer space or alien-themed build, this is perfect.
Meteorite
Some explosive-looking furniture, this meteorite stuff makes an incredible first impression. You can get it by combining meteorite ore with stone blocks, which might sound expensive until three separate meteors strike your world when you have no use for them.
Mushroom
You can make both a bench and a beam with this fun guy. The furniture looks incredibly strange, and that’s just lovely. It will fit super well into that basic above-ground mushroom biome you made just for the truffle to move in or any other weird and shroomy buildings you want to create.
Pumpkin
Incredibly round, green, and very orange, pumpkin furniture is a bit of a strange choice when you could instead make one of the best food sources in the game. On the other hand, if you want a Halloween or fall-themed build, maybe throw in a pumpkin bathtub somewhere.
Reef
Coral furniture isn’t something I would have thought to add to the game, but after 1.4.4 added the reef set, I see precisely how great it is. A pretty pastel and vibrant pink color palette, super bright and colorful, and great for any build where you wanna either have a lovely aesthetic going or blind me entirely. Just turn your coral, seashells, and stone into reef blocks while standing next to the water, and you’ll be good.
Sandstone
Sandstone also has beam-like columns, as well as great desert-themed furniture. If you want to make an underground base in the middle of the Sahara or make a massive pyramid, this furniture would be an excellent addition to that theme. Smooth sandstone can easily be acquired by crafting from sandstone you find in the Desert, which can be turned into this furniture.
Spider Nest
Once in hardmode, if you sincerely feel like putting in the effort to get a ton of spider fangs and cobwebs to make nest blocks, then you can make Spider furniture. This set is just as unsettling and disgusting as it sounds, perfect for awful and scary places like basements, attics, or long abandoned mansions.
Miscellaneous Toilets
For some reason, you can make four different toilets with materials that don’t have other recipes using the Sawmill, namely Diamond, Green Brick, Pink Brick, and Obsidian.
For the diamond one, if you want the most dripped-out bathroom, it is just six diamonds at the Sawmill for the most pristine toilet that looks incredibly similar to the marble one.
Green Brick and Pink Brick are both dungeon bricks, and you can get them by mining at the dungeon with a decent pickaxe. Not sure why these aren’t obtainable in the same way the rest of the dungeon furniture is, which would be just finding it in the dungeon.
Obsidian requires not only four obsidian but also two hellstone ore. This toilet looks menacing, and I would not go into the public bathroom stall if it had this in it. Otherwise, it is pretty similar to the Meteorite one visually.
Questions and Answers
Question: Where do I find the Sawmill in Terraria?
Answer: You need to craft it yourself with wood, iron, and chain at a workbench.
Question: What does the Sawmill do in Terraria?
Answer: The Sawmill primarily creates useful items with wood or various decorative furniture with other materials.
Question: How do I make a Target Dummy in Terraria?
Answer: At a sawmill, use wood and hay collected using a scythe from the merchant to make your Target Dummy.
Conclusion
The Sawmill is an essential item for me in Terraria. Not only does it allow a broader range of furniture and decorative items, but it also allows you to craft Barrels, a Loom, and Target Dummies, which are incredibly helpful to have in any playthrough of the game.
A cheap and easy-to-make crafting station that provides you with some great options for customization and several useful other things is always going to be something I want to make. I find myself making this one on about every Terraria playthrough I do. It’s just that great.
Embark on a boundless adventure in the pixelated sandbox world of Terraria, where you can dig, build, and explore to your heart's content. With endless possibilities for creativity and discovery, join millions of players in crafting your own epic journey.
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