Talk:Enchanting/@comment-26470417-20151213002405

Don't forget that you can combine two enchanted items (e.g. two rods, two bows) to combine their features. So if you have one iron sword with sharpness and another with bane of arthropods, put them in the two anvil slots and the result is one sword with both enchantments. It uses up experience but is worth it. And to repair an iron sword, put it in the left slot and put iron ingots in the right, as many as you need to see a fresh sword on the far right.

In both cases the anvil tells you how much XP will be used.