The application of Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) is an important procedure for producing grain refinement in bulk crystalline solids down to the nano regime. The most important techniques are High Pressure Torsion (HPT) and Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP). The advantage of HPT over ECAP is that a higher degree of deformation, consequently higher strains and therefore finer grains can be reached. The aim of this work was to characterize the changing of the microstructure, the hardness and the tensile strength during HPT of cobalt, gadolinium and titanium. The samples have been deformed at temperatures between -196°C and 650°C and it was shown, that deformation at room temperature leads to a grain size of a few nanometres. An increase of hardness and tensile strength could also be achieved. The difference of the deformation behavior of face center cubic, body center cubic and hexagonal metals was discussed.