The Victorinox Cadet plus was first introduced in April 2011. In fact two different models were introduced at the same time. A black Alox Cadet plus and a silver Alox Cadet II plus with black tools. These knives are also called Mini Farmer, because of its similarity with the Farmer model.
The Cadet plus adds a woodsaw to the well known Cadet and the Cadet II plus adds a woodsaw to the Cadet II model, which has the nailfile replaced by a small blade.
Only 50 pieces of each model were made by Victorinox and all knives are numbered on the main blade.
In November 2011 a silver Cadet plus II was produced for a US Dealer in a small quantity. He called it Micro Farmer, probably to distinguish it from the predecessors. These knives are not numbered.
In 2012 a red and a sunset orange Cadet plus were produced, followed by a copper colored with red shield in 2013.
There is a small difference between the first Cadet plus and the last two models made in sunset orange and copper. The spacers or liners, used in the last two Cadet plus are made of aluminum, while the others are made of nickel silver.
The usage of aluminum liners instead of nickel silver liners has some impacts on the knives. The aluminum liners are thicker but lighter. But how much thicker and how much lighter are the Cadet plus with aluminum liners really?
As you can see the Cadet with aliminum liners is 0.6mm (0.0236″) thicker than the one with nickel silver liners.
And similar low and insignificant is the difference in weight. Aluminum saves 2g compared to nickel silver.
On the other side, nickel silver is stronger than aluminum and I would prefer nickel silver.
But there is not only a difference in the material, also the shape of the liners is different. The nickel silver liners describe a bend till the back of the blade, while the aluminum liners are smaller and follow the back spring. And this is a plus for the aluminum liners.
The extra space for the woodsaw is the plus for the aluminum liners. When I close the woodsaw of a Cadet plus with nickel silver liners, sometimes it happens, that a teeth bites in a liner. With the smaller aluminum liners without the bend this cannot happen.
I like the Cadet plus and Cadet II plus. For me it’s really like a mini Farmer, it combines a lot of useful tools in a small pocket size.
Enjoy some more pictures…
In May 2014 a US Dealer(*) ordered two more Micro Farmer in two different color. One in apocalypse green and the other in Davy’s gray. More about Davy’s gray here.
(*) He doesn’t want his name published on my website.
