Sambino,
Doug and Justin are telling you like it is, thinking about it being original AND your own work, if you do all the shaping, be-it grinding, forging or otherwise, then it IS all your work. I totally agree with Justin, be upfront with your customers, let them know that it was cut out by XXXX company, and heat treating was done by XXXX company, and the KNIFE is made by SAMBINO!!!
Come to think of it the late GREAT Bob Loveless did just about the same thing, I'm not sure if he had his cut out by someone else but I know he had an outside heat treating company do all of his knives, now he was using steel that required special equipment that if he had bought himself would have cost thousands of dollars. In an article I read, his advice for knife makers was to use a good HT company that had the equipment to do a proper heat treat. The more advanced company's (back then) could do the HT in a room and then could cool the same room down to -300 to cryo quench the blades.
There are some great advantages to using an outside company to do this work, as well as a few disadvantages. The disadvantages to me, are just a few. If you have a competent company it's not an issue. But if there was a problem with the HT, and your aren't doing it yourself and don't understand how the whole process works, then you will definitely have a problem. Knowing how to HT the steel you use is very important, but if your using an outside company to do all of your HT, it will allow you to use practically any steel you want.
The other disadvantage is turn around time, having to depend on someone else to deliver when they say they will, and then something happens and you have to explain to your customer why it won't be delivered on time is bad business, of course you can always tell your customer it'll be done when you get done...but
that's bad business too!
There will be many folks that will say that this IS knife making, and probably just as many that will say it isn't. How you present yourself is where the details should be, always be upfront and honest with potential customers, your work will speak for itself!
One last thing, HTing knife steel isn't all that hard, provided you stick with simple high carbon 10XX steel, preferably 1084, it can HT'd with a forge, and quenched in all kinds of different oils. I've heard of people using used automatic transmission fluid to Canola oil. If your interested in learning how, the information is on this forum and the internet. Hope this helps, Rex