5 things you didn't know about cartography tables in Minecraft

Minecraft is a game that is built entirely around the concept of blocks and pixels. Everything the player sees in the game is shaped like or composed of blocks. Each block in the game has a specific use and is therefore placed in a specific category in the game.

For example, Andesite and diorite are blocks found while mining underground. They have no legitimate use in the game except having a different texture than stone and cobblestone. Therefore, they are used as decoration blocks. In the same way, the game has a ton of blocks that are used to craft certain items or perform certain actions. The cartography table is one such block.

This article will go over five things players may not know about the cartography table.

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Cartography table in Minecraft: 5 features players may not know about

5) Locked Maps

A locked map (Image via Minecraft)

Locked maps are an immensely useful way to ensure that a map remains how the player wants it to be. Unlike normal maps, locked maps stop updating after being locked.

For example, if a player thinks that a build that they made can be destroyed or griefed, it is possible for them to lock the generation of that base into their map for safekeeping. Players will need to place their map in the upper slot of the cartography table with a glass pane in the lower slot to make that particular map a locked map.

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4) Creating Empty Maps

An empty map (Image via Minecraft)

In Java Edition, players can only create new and empty maps using the crafting table. However, in Bedrock Edition, players can use the cartography table to do so and potentially save themselves a large amount of paper. A crafting table requires nine pieces of paper to craft a map, while a cartography table requires just one.

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3) Renaming maps

This is another Bedrock Edition exclusive feature that enables players to use a cartography table to rename their maps. This can be of immense help if players have a large number of maps or have multiple copies of the same map. The cartography table has a built-in slot where players can rename their map.

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2) Note Block

Like almost every block in the game, cartography tables emit a musical sound when placed below a Note block. Players can hear a "bass" note for this particular block.

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1) Fuel

Using a Cartography table to cook food (Image via Minecraft)

Like most wood items and blocks in the game, players can use a cartography table as fuel to aid them in cooking food or smelting ores. This can come quite handy in an emergency.

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About the cartography table block

The cartography table was introduced in the Minecraft 1.14 update, which was named the Village and Pillage update. The update was released back in 2019 and brought other blocks like Barrels, Composters Blast Furnaces, Fletching tables, Grindstones, Lecterns, Looms, Smokers, Smithing Tables, and Stone Cutters, that, along with cartography tables, served as job site blocks for the villager mobs.

More specifically, the cartography table serves as the job site block for the Cartographer. Players can trade banners, compasses, banner patterns, papers, and maps like the explorer map that lead to structures like woodland mansions and ocean monuments or even buried treasures.