Switchblade

[Baker, John]

        Here's an 1894 cite for switchblade knife (OED has 1932):

>>As they moved on, Martin, the defendant, was heard to say, "I fixed him;" and, further down the street, Martin showed Lyle the knife with which the stabbing was done.  It is of the kind the negroes of that city [sc. Kansas City] call a "switch," and, it seems, in very general use among them.  The defendant Martin was arrested next morning at his home, and the knife, with the handle and blade both still fresh with blood, was found in his house.<<

State v. Martin, 124 Mo. 514, 28 S.W. 12 (Mo. 1894).


John Baker