A comparative investigation has been made of the microstructure and magnetization reversal behavior of nanocomposite SmCo 5 /Sm 2 Co 17 powders prepared by intensive milling and subsequent annealing. It was found that the saturation magnetization increases monotonically with the increase of the volume fraction of Sm 2 Co 17 at the expense of the coercivity. However, the remanence and the energy product first increase and then decrease with further increase of the fraction of Sm 2 Co 17 . The highest remanence of 0.72 T and energy product of 78 kJ/m 3 are obtained in the powders with 80% and 60% Sm 2 Co 17 , respectively. All the hysteresis loops exhibit a magnetically single-phase behavior. X-ray diffraction results reveal that the coexistence of two phases is found in the mixture of SmCo 5 /Sm 2 Co 17 powders. The demagnetization processes of the SmCo 5 /Sm 2 Co 17 powders are similar to those of nanocomposites consisting of hard and soft phases, in which the exchange-spring magnet behavior was observed. Positive as well as negative deviations in Wohlfarth's remanence analysis ͑␦M -plot͒ have been observed, indicating complex magnetic interactions in these materials.