Well, I was gonna stay out of this, since Randy closed the thread, and I thought that it was fitting that Dan should have the last word, being the injured party. However, since the thread has been moved, and opened, I would like to say the following:
I am not a knife dealer, and I am not a member of any conspiracy or cabal. I have never met Neil Ostroff or Dan Delavan, but have done business with both. I have never met John Fitch, but like his knives. After reading this thread, the only way that I would purchase a knife from him would be at a show--cash on the nail for the knife in my hand. I don't necessarily believe that he is dishonest, but he has shown himself to be a bad businessman by his actions described in this thread.
I would never, under any circumstances whatsoever, do any business with brownshoe. Especially, but not limited to knife business--exchanges, purchases, or anything else. He has shown himself to lack any understanding of this little hobby of ours:
Edited to Add: Most of the negative remarks about Mr. Fitch involve people who wished to profit on the sale of his work. They lost this opportunity. Now they are attacking his reputation. Is this retribution for their failure to profit from his work? If so shame on them. Orstuff is a purveyour who is now denigrating the reputation of someone who has upset the dealer network. Is this a cabal or a coincidence? Beware knifemakers if you disturb the powerful.
I have met a number of knifemakers, collectors, and purveyors in the past few years. Some of them have become good friends. Nobody has told me about any exploitation---
no maker is required to deal with any purveyor. sure, people profit by each other's work--it
works both ways in the case of makers and purveyors. Purveyors make a profit--that is the price that we pay for receiving a knife immediately, and being able to look at many knives from many makers all at once. I have, on many occasions, called makers with whom I am friendly, to inquire about the costs of making a similar knife that is being offered by a purveyor. In the cases of the purveyors that I do business with, the margin is not that high--if it were, I, like just about everyone else here, would deal with my impatience, and order from the maker, wait time or no. Brownshoe's post shows that he does not understand this business relationship.
However, it is worse than that. Brownshoe talks about innuendo, libel etc--despite the fact that there are fist-hand accounts of this story. Brownshoe sees no problem at all that Dan took a financial hit, as if Dan does not have a family to feed and bills to pay. (again, I don't know Dan--the family part is a guess, but I'm pretty sure about the bills.)
Such a cavalier dismissal of someone else's problem---(and yes, this is a real problem-if such things happen often, Dan's show will go right down the toilet)
tells me that brownshoe is not an honest person, and I would be just as happy to never have to deal with him in real life--or on the forums (which is why I am addressing the rest of the forumites, but not brownshoe directly).
Mr. Fitch could still make this right by calling Dan directly and having a conversation with him--I am sure that something could be worked out. Even if Mr. Fitch does not care to post here, I am sure that this would get back to us all. The vast majority of us would like to give any just about any knifemaker the benefit of the doubt.
However, like I said--brownshoe cannot make things right. I would not do business with him. I don't blame him for not revealing his identity--because, if we know who he was, few of us would be willing to to business with him in person either. Certainly, no purveyor in his right mind would sell him anything, or, given his lack of respect for their profession, would give him the time of day or a howdy-do.
If you are a serious collector and use your real name on this forum, I hope you have a UL quality alarm system with private response service. 
