In the present work the characterisation of both the microstructure and the microtexture of two ferritic stainless steel sheets - AISI 430 (Fe17% Cr) and AISI 434 (17% Cr, 1% Mo) known to display different ridging behaviours, was carried out by optical metallography, EBSD and OIM techniques. It was concluded that severe ridging is a consequence of (a) presence of {111}< uvw > and {001}< uvw > colonies of grains alternating throughout the sheet plane; (b) through thickness texture inhomogeneity with layers of {001}< 110 > oriented large grains of low R-values sandwiched between layers of higher R-value textured material.