A Abstract Systematic studies of the effects of crystalline forms of starting powders and p processing variables on the texture of hot - pressed silicon carbide are described. The results I indicate that hot - pressing of $eta$ - SiC can produce strong textures and composite type duplex microstructure due to the ${eta} { ightarrow} {alpha}$ phase transformation of SiC. The texture variations d during post - annealing have been observed. In the case of using a - SiC as starting pow¬d ders, the degree of preferred orientation by hot - pressing is relatively weak.