Thread: JA s. Westa Info Please?

G'day all,
just arrived I got this JA s. Westa str8 "blade only" of the bay
the Ebay pic of this is the only Str8 I can find on the net from them
the Manufacturer is James Westa 28 Lord St Sheffield, it seems they were big on making the DCL & ornate Bowies & Dirk knives


any help would be appreciated




I am looking for a scale design for it and looking at the rest of the knives they made, I think it would be something with ornate bolsters & inlays etc
tha blade is in great shape still pilished with some patina no active rust etc and minimal hone wear

Very interesting razor, seems like there is very little history on James Westa especially at 28 lord st Sheffield. A recognizable name in the knife world but definately not in razors. All the knifes from this firm are said to be dated mid 19th century, the look and design of your razor would fit in that time period.

The cutlery historian and knifes guru's have no history on this firm, Tweedale even states in his book on cutlery, that even the name Westa on a digital search of 19th century records has no return. And also that Lord street was a working class street without any notable knife makers.
He goes on to say that westa might be an abreviation to Westaway, witch in case James Westaway 1828-1904 born in 1828 imigrated to the US in 1850, open an hardware store in Detroit Michigan in 1853 an was selling cutlery? its possible that the knifes and razors were made in sheffield for this hardware store? a long shot i think, nevertheless a very interesting blade with somewhat of a mysterious history...

Thanks mate
Yeh very little in all the variants of Westa only knives and lots of nice ones at that but no other str8s
Maybe someone has one or something in hard copy also
It has a nice grind lines to it and is still fairly polished not as bad as the pics make it look