High silicon steel with an initial near columnar-grained structure was directly hot-rolled and followed by subsequent warm-rolling,cold-rolling and annealing. Then its microstructure and texture were determined using electron backscatter diffraction,and the magnetic properties of annealed sheets were measured as well. For this high silicon steel,the microstructure and texture evolution of initial near columnar-grained samples represent competitive behavior between fine shear-textured grains near the surface...