‘James Westa, Lord Street, Sheffield’ is stamped on several Bowie knives that have survived from the American Civil War era.  The Bowies are often spear points, which are usually plain in style, though some have pearl grips and decorated German silver crossguards and pommels (some with a bird motif).   ‘DCL’ is usually stamped into the tang of Westa knives in bold letters.  Some knives carry the patriotic slogan, ‘A Washingtonian’.  These knives are said to have been made in Sheffield in the 1850s and early 1860s, with Westa reputedly contracted to supply the state of Louisiana shortly after the initial secession.   Mysteriously, no ‘Westa’ operated in Sheffield in the nineteenth century.  Lord Street – a working-class backstreet behind the railway station in Sheffield, which has now been demolished – was not associated with any notable Bowie makers.  The name is also apparently absent from American directories.  No evidence has been produced to substantiate the Louisiana claim (personal information from Josh Phillips).  

Perhaps ‘Westa’ was American.  If the name was an abbreviation, James Westaway (1828-1904), an English-born owner of a hardware store in Detroit, may be a candidate (Johnston’s Detroit Directory, 1853).  Westaway sold cutlery and may have ordered knives from Sheffield.   However, the Westaway-Westa link is very speculative.  The ‘DCL’ mark remains a mystery, too, though it may have been a play on the famous I*XL of Wostenholm.  Intriguingly, the ‘DCL’ stamp is found on similar Bowie knives marked ‘Wilson Swift, Broad Street’ (a road close to Lord Street).  Manson is another stamp on Bowie knives that seem close in style and chronology to those by Westa and Wilson Swift.  

So unusual is the name ‘Westa’ that a digital search of all nineteenth-century English newspapers held by the British Library has so far produced only one ‘hit’.   That relates to an enquiry in 1928 about a ‘Westa’ DCL knife by the American vice-consul in Sheffield, who appealed for information about the maker.  Apparently, none was forthcoming – and we are none the wiser today! (Sheffield Daily Independent, 30 April 1928).