Recently a contact solid carburization method to fabricate carbide coatings on refractory metals was proposed. The principle is to hot-press the refractory metal with a “carbon sponge” (e.g. cast iron or high-carbon steel) which contains interstitial carbon atoms. When they contact in atomic scale at high temperatures, the carbon atoms diffuse into the refractory metal matrix and then dense carbide coatings on the substrates can be obtained since most refractory metals are carbide forming elements. In this article, we apply this method to prepare carbide coating on molybdenum (Mo). Cast iron is used as the “carbon sponge” and hot-pressed with textured Mo at constant temperature and pressure (18 MPa). We set the temperature at 1100 °C and 900 °C separately, we found that coatings containing Fe-Mo-C layer and Mo-C layer are generated at 1100 °C while coatings containing only Mo-C layer are formed at 900 °C. We then hot-pressed the samples at 900 °C for 2–10 h and systematically investigated the microstructure and some basic properties of the coatings obtained at 900 °C. The coating grows inward, it is pure ceramic and completely dense. The coating is composed of columnar Mo2C grains whose grain orientations are randomly distributed. The metal and carbide phases are metallurgically bonded with incoherent interfaces. The coating thickness reaches 1.8 μm when annealed for 10 h. As expected, the surface hardness is remarkably improved and the coating adhesion is strong. This technique is also expected to be used to improve the wear resistance, oxidation resistance for molybdenum and Mo based alloys and may also provide a new strategy to prepare Mo2C superconductors and catalysts.