Choosing Wood as a Beginner Woodworker

A long-time Baltimore resident, John Reiff earned his juris doctor from the Washington School of Law. Outside of his work as a managing member at Land Research Associates in Baltimore, John Reiff enjoys spending his free time doing woodworking projects.

Woodworking can be learned by anyone with a plan and a few tools. The first thing most beginner woodworkers have to choose is the type of wood to work on. Although hardwood is often the go-to choice for experienced woodworkers because of its durability and high-density, it is difficult to make perfect cuts in hardwood without a table saw.

An alternative to hardwood would be softwood or plywood. Besides being less expensive than hardwood, plywood and softwood can do beautiful projects and are suitable for practicing woodcutting.

Those who have a small shop are recommended to purchase wood boards in the width and thickness they already need. A tip is to ask the home center or lumberyard employees to cut the sheets or boards in the approximate size required.

NAVAIR Teams Up with MIT to Improve Acquisitions

A Baltimore-based real estate attorney, John Reiff manages a large portfolio of properties for Land Research Associates and operates his law firm, the Law Office of John Reiff. John Reiff of Baltimore holds a mechanical engineering degree along with his JD and worked as a contract attorney for the Naval Air Systems Command, where he oversaw a broad portfolio covering millions of dollars of acquisitions.

NAVAIR has recently teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to make important changes to its engineering acquisition systems. To that effect, NAVAIR entered MIT’s Architecture and Systems Engineering: Models and Methods to Manage Complex Systems online course.
According to higher-ups at NAVAIR, the delivery time for new technologies is not in line with expectations, and shortening the timeline from conception to implementation is a crucial goal of the partnership. The current design and development process at NAVAIR hasn’t been overhauled in decades.

Making a change to a model-based system is expected to help modernize NAVAIR’s abilities to design and deliver equipment on a much more manageable timeframe.