<p>The morphological and structural changes in a mixture of iron and aluminum powders after grinding in a planetary mill were examined. Work hardening caused the powder particles to acquire lamellar shapes. X-ray diffraction revealed a high number of deformation-induced defects. Work hardening was found to significantly complicate the densification process. Following cold pressing, the porosity remained at ~35–40%. A comparative analysis of phase and structural changes during heating and sintering of the ground powders was carried out. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis of the Fe₂Al₅ intermetallic compound occurred predominantly in the solid phase, below the melting point of aluminum and produced onethird of the thermal effect observed for the unground powders. Dilatometric studies demonstrated that the ground powders swelled less during self-propagating high-temperature synthesis and exhibited much poorer densification and sintering behavior as the temperature increased up to 1450°C. Because of the insufficient density and poor quality of interparticle contacts, sintered samples produced from the ground powders showed substantially lower mechanical properties than those from the unground powders. Considerable attention was given to phase formation features in the temperature range typical of direct powder forging (600–1000°C). Analysis of phase and structural changes accounted for the effect of a sealed container, restricting volume changes in the sample in reactive synthesis. The presence of the container accelerated phase formation at the initial heating stage through deformation, which suppressed swelling. At higher heating temperatures, the container slightly slowed down phase transformations. After heating to 1000°C and holding for 20 min, the samples produced from both ground and unground powders transformed into the Fe₃Al phase with a disordered A2-type structure.</p>