The sintering of DyBa2Cu3O7−&dgr;has been improved by controlling powder size, sintering temperature, and sintering atmosphere. Sintering below the eutectic temperature has been explored for different temperatures and oxygen partial pressures. Sintering kinetics have been enhanced, yielding high density (up to 95%) and small grain size (down to 1.5 &mgr;m) with shorter sintering times and lower temperatures. Two sets of samples, one set containing 10‐wt. % Ag2O in the precursor powder and one undoped set, were studied. The sintering rate decreased with decreasing temperature, even in samples sintered in low partial pressures of oxygen (which increase the oxygen vacancy concentration). The addition of Ag2O yielded a dispersion of Ag particles about one‐half the DyBa2Cu3O7−&dgr;grain size at grain boundary triple points. Ag tended to enhance grain growth slightly and did not improve the superconducting properties. Resistivity was as low as 220 &mgr;&OHgr;‐cm at 100 K. Transport critical current densities (Jct) were up to five times higher than in previous larger grain size samples that were sintered above the eutectic temperature. The best of the new samples achieved ∼100 A/cm2at 4.2 K in fields of 1–7 T. This improvement occurred in spite of there being more than twice as much grain boundary surface area per unit volume. We conclude that the grain boundaries in sintered 123 compounds are not always barriers to current flow, and that increasing the proportion of nonbasal plane faced grain boundaries is important in raisingJct.