A real good place to start is woodcrafters. They carry very good blanks and some with bolsters. I would advise a Zhen paring knife blank as a starter. It's VG-10 steel (outstanding stuff) They have a very nice selection of exotic woods to choose from for scales if you want and the knife will make an outstanding kitchen knife or equally outstanding hunting knife. Jantz has a lot of dedicated knife making stuff from pres shaped/ground blanks to steel stock in a wide variety of steels. I have a few D2 blades, a couple-three CPM 154 blades and think either makes an outstanding knife an a good place to start.
Tim is right though, it's a bad way to go to get started building knives. I agree with Tim about your probable fate. You understand that having the right tools is important and you are contemplating building one of the most universal of tools, knives. I have gone down the road far enough to have to learn lapidary skills to build a couple with stone handles. A person has to have knives to butcher the deer you gut with the hunting knife and that means a whole 'nother set of knives to build. If you are going to do it go full tilt and good luck.
