Two solutions with one board
I don't have OCD, but I do have some compulsions and strong reactions to certain kinds of disarray. One of those is toward a jumbled mess of silverware, with knives intertwined with forks, and mismatched spoons turned every which way. Call it what you may, but to help solve the problem, I thought I would make a silverware tray that would hold knives with knives, small forks with small forks, and so on.
I also had a single board (if you could call it that) of Catalpa wood that was only about 1/4" thick. It was a pretty ragged board, with rough edges and a couple knots, so it wouldn't be of much use other than to cut into small pieces. It was perfect for this project; I get rid of a challenging board, and I get a silverware tray.
It was designed specifically to fit the dimensions of our silverware, so any given item is obviously either in the correct place, or not. You can see the plans I originally made for this project below, and you can also see that I made a few pretty obvious changes to those plans along the way. The most notable are the box jointed corners and the rounded cutouts in the dividers.
I don't have pictures of the project in-progress. Suffice it to say it was a tedious process of painstakingly fitting pieces together, one-at-a-time, for the perfect fit. I used shallow dado joints for added strength, which you can see here.
I also reinforced the outside corners with a piece of Black Walnut. I wanted to account for the possibility that the tray could be pulled out of a drawer and carried to a table while full of silverware, which would mean it would be carrying a bit of weight. With only a 1/4" outside frame—using miter joints, nonetheless—I thought best to strengthen the corners.
Catalpa is similar to Oak in appearance and workability, though a bit finer and more attractive in my opinion. If memory serves, I finished it with urethane for durability, and it's still serving quite well almost four years later.
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