Carbon short fibers with a length of similar to 3 mm used as a reactive template were mixed with Ti and Sn powders. The mixture was pressurelessly sintered at 1200 degrees C for 2 h in a vacuum atmosphere. The microstructure shows that Ti2SnC grains with a plate-like shape grow along a preferred direction, forming a 'string' structure in which Ti2SnC platelets pack themselves closely with a top-bottom-top-bottom sequence. With increasing the length of the C fibers, the length of the 'string' structures increases. A large amount of long and aligned 'string' structures have formed after sintering the samples prepared by infiltration of the carbon short fibers with a length of similar to 50 mm in a Ti-Sn slurry and then stacking and cold pressing. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, respectively were used to analyze and observe the phase composition and microstructure. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.