While a lot of knifemakers kind of look down there noses at folks who don't start from scratch with a flat bar of steel, I think it's mostly directed at folks who build from kits, and then turn around and call it "MY" "Handmade" knife.
Don't let dorks like that get to you. As long as you're honest about how much of the work was your own, there's nothing wrong with using a kit. Personally, I find that they really aren't that much less work than "making your own," but remember everybody's got a different idea of what that means.
I know makers who look down their noses at people who buy kits, but they grind knives out of machined flat stock they order from Admiral, then send it away to someone like Paul Bos for heat treat. I see nothing wrong with that; Bos does a good job. If you can't, yet, there's no sense in making a bad knife.
I know other makers who look down at those guys because they don't do their own heat treats. These guys went to the trouble of buying furnaces and kilns so they can do their own. I think that's great.
I know other makers who look down at
those guys because they don't forge their own blanks from scrap or other sources. These guys forge so that they can control the profile and shape much better and waste a lot less steel. Some of them claim to get better metallurgy from forging, but that's doubtful. I doubt such a blade is any better than the ground blade with the same heat treat, but who knows?
I know other makers who look down on
all those guys because they use power tools at all and don't do everything "unplugged," including starting fires with flint and steel and refusing to use modern adhesives or abrasives.
And I know still other makers who actually dig and smelt their own iron ore!
The funny thing is, the higher you go in that chain, the harder it is to find someone who will badmouth the guys who do less of the work themselves. The guys who smelt iron ore, forge blades, polish with stones (or hammer so well they don't seem to need to polish, like Tai Goo) seem to have no desire to speak ill of people who buy kits and do nothing more than bolt the pieces together and sand the grips to shape. These guys know it's about making tools and art in the same day. They live to combine the aesthetic and the pragmatic essences in one piece of metal. They have their own way of doing it, but they could care less how you do it as long as you respect the craft.