The present study investigates the behavior of the sintering and hardness of stainless steel samples reinforced with NbC and TaC. Matrixes of pure stainless steel were compacted with addition of up to 3% wt NbC or TaC in a cylindrical die of steel at 700 MPa and sintered in an electrical resistance furnace under argon atmosphere. The sintered samples were characterized by density and hardness measurement, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The preliminary results show that the size and distribution of carbides influence in the sintering and hardness of the sintered samples.