STI/SVI (dumb newbie question)

[CZJedi]

Ok, here's the dumb newbie question of the day: are STI and SVI the same company? The reason I ask is because a lot of times when they talk about 1911s, they will lump them together for parts (which made me think they were connected). However a few weeks ago in another thread, somebody (Berryhill Parts?) mentioned that SVI is the only company that makes a machined thumb saftey. I saw it online, and it looked nice. So I emailed Dan Wesson (I own a Pointman 7) and asked them what type of thumb safties they use. I got the following reply:

"The thumb safety on the PM7 is by STI and it is a MIM part.
That being said it is a very high quality MIM part."

If the SVI part is really machined, I'd like to upgrade to it, but if it is the same as the part in my DW, I won't bother.

[CZJedi]

I got a reply from both DW and SVI. The SVI part is fully machined. DW also told me that the hammer on my PM7 is MIM as well.

[INTrooper4255]

I just replaced the FAILED Ed Brown thmb safety on my Kimber Warrior with a bar stock SVI unit and they are very nice! The smith that replaced the cracked Ed Brown unit with the SVI said that he only uses SVI parts. The only thing is, the hammer on my pistol had to be machined to accept the SVI unit. The smith said that he could have altered the thumb safety to work, but would rather alter the hammer. He had to shave some material off of the bottom of the hammer, because evidently, the SVI thumb safeties are designed to work with the SVI hammers, which have less material on the bottom and more clearance. That's how I took his explanation anyway. All my psitols will have either an SVI, Wilson or King's thumb safety, probably an SVI over all of them.

[RickB]

STI and SVI are related. When the "modular" hi-cap frame was introduced, the maker was TRI (Tripp [as in Virgil] Research International, IIRC). There was some shuffling or fallings out, or some such, and two companies resulted, STI and SVI, with both having rights to the frame design. The "V" in SVI is Mike Voigt, the president of USPSA, who is sponsored by STI; would like to hear that story. The "S" in both is Sandy Strayer, who is apparently no longer associated with either. :)

[irq23]

This explains it: http://www.trippresearch.com/history/