XS Scuba Neuro Dive Knife Review

Every so often you get a piece of equipment in your hands that makes you say, “this is what I picture when you describe this piece of equipment.” When I say “dive knife,” what image pops into your mind? For me, it’s the XS Scuba neuro knife. This thing has sleek lines, nice balance, not too big, not too small—it’s the Goldilocks of dive knives.

During our testing phase, the Neuro performed well. It’s one of the easiest knives to get in and out of the sheath. A simple button on the outside releases the knife and it catches nicely when you slide it back in.

The straight edge cut through all the rope we used, from 550 paracord to ¼-inch poly dock rope. It’s definitely the sharper of the two edges. The serrated edge cut through the 550 cord, but struggled with the thicker rope.

One of my favorite things about the Neuro knife is that the black model is coated with chromium, which means the chances of it rusting and corroding is lessened. We’re tough on gear around here, so anything that extends the life of that gear is appreciated.

It’s really hard to beat the price of the Neuro knife. It cuts well, and it’s easily one of the most accessible knives. If, however, you want the best of the best knives we tested, and you have a little bit of extra money, we can’t recommend the Benchmade H2O enough.

We do recommend the XS Scuba Neuro knife. It has a great sheath that makes getting it in and out extremely easy. The one-finger push-button design is easy to use and easy to find. The straight edge is sharp and ready to cut out of the box. The serrated edge is a little weak, and it’s honestly the only reason we didn’t award it our best budget knife.

We actually really liked all the XS Scuba knives we tested. Our favorite multi-tool dive knife comes from them; we can’t rave enough about the XS Scuba Mini FogCutter.

The SEAC Tajaman was our pick for best budget knife. Both the blades are extremely sharp, but it isn’t without some faults. The sheath is more difficult to get the knife back in. Check out our review and compare for yourself.

We think this would be a perfect knife for just about any diver. It’s big enough to wear on your calf, but small enough to clip to your BCD. It’s inexpensive, so it makes sense as a backup knife, and we think it looks really nice.

To see how the XS Scuba Neuro knife stacks up against the rest of the knives we tested, check out reviews of all the knives we tested.