Shaving razor was essentially a small piece of a straight razor attached to a handle using a clamp mechanism. Before each shave the blade had to be attached to a special holder, stropped with a leather belt, and placed back into the razor. After a time, the blade needed to be honed by a cutler. In 1895, King Camp Gillette invented the double-edged safety razor, which utilised inexpensive, disposable blades sharpened from two sides. It took him until 1901 to build a working, patentable model, and commercial production began in 1903. The razor gained popularity during World War I when the
Razor & Tie Marshall Crenshaw, Joan Baez, and Graham Parker, which allowed Razor & Tie to focus on broadening audiences rather than developing new ones. (Parker had recorded for seven major labels. "The idea of having advertisements say Graham Parker's 'minor label debut' was appealing to me," he said.) The first new artist signed to Razor & Tie was Dar Williams, who released her debut album "The Honesty Room" in February, 1995. A single from the album, "When I Was a Boy" received significant radio play, and the album went on to become one of the best selling independent folk albums of the