Grain boundary engineering has been applied to different materials in order to increase properties particularly sensitive to intergranular phenomena. This work analyses the micromechanisms that allow the control of the amount of special boundaries which respect coincidence site lattice theory. alpha-brass, a lead alloy, Inconel 625 and Inconel 600 were submitted to different thermomechanical treatments and were analyzed via electron backscatter diffraction in order to characterize their grain boundaries. The occurrence of thin twins in some crystal directions during the deformation step seems to determine the results obtained as well as strain induced boundary migration.