The shear textures that develop in friction stir welds are reviewed and discussed. In all the materials examined, including face centred cubic (fcc), body centred cubic (bcc) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) materials, friction stir welding produces a predominant shear texture with the close-packed directions aligned with the shear direction (SD) and the close-packed plane normal perpendicular to both the SD and the shear plane normal. This orientation corresponds to the ...