Placing recrystallization annealing in a manufacturing proces is often necessary in order to restore plasticity of worked blanks right before working products to its final shape. For better understanding of processes which are taking place in a material during annealing the use of in-situ techniques is favorable. Such observations enable us to watch changes in the materiál in real time at the original spot. Observations at grain-level are ideally made with scanning electron microscope – SEM by electron back-scattered diffraction – EBSD. The technique makes watching nucleation, growth and potential coarsening of recrystallized grains possible. Special construction of a tensile stage allows us to watch changes of a sample during tensile tests which can be used in observing influence of MnS inclusions on plasticity of free-cutting steels. Materials studied in this work are commonly used free-cutting steel 11SMnPb30 and its lead-free alternative 11SMnBi30.