50 years ago they were a top notch company. Many of their stock designs were developed by Monte Kennedy and Jerry Fisher. They always had outstanding wood but has been noted their inletting at that time left a lot to be desired if you were not a pro. stock builder which at that time they mostly catered to. They were the only stock company that handled Yama Wood from Japan which was the lightest and strongest wood you could get for a stock and had outstand color patterns in it. We developed a formula which when applied to the wood really enhanced it appearance. In those days Fajen and Bishop didn't even compare with Richards
Yama is nothing but Japanese maple and a very small tree. Blanks were rare because they seldom got big enough. Bigleaf maple has slightly better mechanical characteristics and in wood of equal density is about the only wood that is better than the walnuts. The differences are tiny.
Bigleaf is readily available, but highly figured pieces are usually quite dense, thus stronger...
