Hi Bob, thank you very much, I'm glad you liked the knife. I work on the handles for fun and as such have not kept close track of the time involved. However, I have developed enough of a routine that I believe that considering epoxy dry time and working several hours (3-6) a day with hand tools would finish a knife in about a week and a half. I usually take much longer since there is no rush.

The LV is hard but was not difficult to shape. I started off as usual rough shaping with a belt sander then a coarse dremel drum, a coarse flat file, then a rat tail file for the finger grooves and finally alternating between buffing to see imperfections then sanding to remove. Just to answer your question, I would say that shaping the wood to a near finished point would take (me) 8-12 hours. The LV was very aromatic when cut/sanded and was initially pleasant but grew tiresome quickly The LV also filled the sandpaper quickly. If you are interested I'll email a few pictures of the knife in it's early stages before shaping.
Dave