I was a little skeptical of this thing since it looks very weird and awkward. I decided to buy it because I have become weary of using carbide blades to cut my Hardie Planks in light of the health risks associated with it. Another factor was that holding a spinning blade in my hands wasn't ideal when working from staging.

This tool definitely was worth the money for me. Don't let it's looks fool you. It is very easy to use, and makes very nice cuts in the siding planks. As long as you make your cuts with the planks face down (my siding was prepainted), the edge that it creates is nice and sharp. It only takes seconds to make the cut, and is very quiet compared to a saw.

As a homeowner who doesn't do carpentry professionally, it was very quick and easy to learn how to use. To make a straight cut, the cutting edge will run perfectly along a speed square. I used it to side my entire house (45' x 45', two stories plus 6 dormers), and I didn't notice any degradation in the sharpness of the blades.

The only downside I can even think of is that the while it cuts, it creates waste of about a 1/4 inch strip of the plank. After a while, those little strips make a mess under your feet. Compared to dust flying in the air from the traditional saw blades, I would take this tradeoff any day.

I love hardie siding and backer board as a material, but have always hated cutting it. I've used a variety of scoring tools, jigsaw blades, and circular saw blade made especially for the purpose with mixed results. My latest project involved a lot of cross cutting across 4 by 8 hardie panel to fully side a detached garage, and I dreaded the dust and noise of using the circular saw to accomplish it. It was a large enough project that I talked myself into the cost of these shears and I an so glad that I did. Worked like a charm with little fuss, noise, or dust. At the end of the project I didn't notice any wear to the shear blades at all, giving me a good feeling they will last a long as advertised. The shears could not cut through the thicker hardie trim boards, so i did stick with the circular blade for those few cuts.

As noted in other reviews the shears create a curl of material that can obscure the cut line. I found it easy enough to knock it away as you work, but you can also solve the problem by marking your cut line to align with the outer edge of the shear so that it doesn't get obscured.

If you work with hardie fairly regularly, I'd recommend these whole heartedly. They will work out to be much cheaper in the long run compared to the $30-40 fiber cement blades, and are much, much more pleasant to work with.

This is a great tool! If you have ever worked with fiber cement siding, you know how miserable cutting it can be. These cutting shears take all of the mess and frustration out of cutting the siding. It is well worth the money for the time it will save you and for the health benefits of not breathing the cement board dust. Make one cut with the shears, and you too will be hooked and never cut fiber cement board again with any other type of cutter. In additional to standard straight cuts, you can make trim cuts and round cuts with it. To appreciate how fantastic this tool is, view the short promotional video on it. Using these cutting shears is actually as easy as shown in the video. Don't start a fiber cement project without these shears...

Like most of the reviews, I've found this tool to be indispensable to working with Hardi-Plank.

It makes smooth cuts with absolutely no dust provided finished side is down (that is at the bottom of the scissors), and with the help of a 6" speedi-square and a little practice you can make perfectly square cuts. The only thing needed is a little "rasping" of the cut edge to remove some of the remaining loose fibers. I just use a small piece of Hardi-Plank for that.

The little curlicues of cut material make a mess but the small bits broken bits get eaten by the grass. I raked most of them up but the smaller bits disappeared into the grass in a couple of weeks.

Cutting "notches" in the planks is difficult if not impossible to do neatly with this tool. For that I still use a 4.5" grinder with a diamond wheel. A little dust but nothing like you would get by making every cut on a siding job using a diamond wheel. I just hold my breath for a bit and I'm old anyway... I also still rely on the old skillsaw/diamond blade for trim boards.

So back to the tool:

Pros: Runs very smooth, variable speed trigger very linear. Powerful, well made - quality and performance you might expect from something like a Bosch power tool. Blades can be removed and turned around and changed side/side, the combinations giving 4 new sets of cutting edges before needing replacement. I've done the entire 3,000 sq ft house with no more wear than a little polishing action on the existing cutting surfaces.

Con (only one): Like other reviewers I've found the cord placement at the bottom of the trigger handle troublesome when making long ripping cuts. I have a set of sheetmetal shears of similar design and the cutter head rotates to different positions on the drill motor which eliminates this problem - and these are from Harbor Freight and cost less than $50! C'mon PacTool!

I tried using a hand-held circular saw with a cement board siding blade and it was very dusty and lots of work. Not to mention, how steady you have to be when using a circular saw and it's so unsafe too, if you lack experience. So I researched cutting shears after seeing a Youtube video. And I promptly bought this shear after only one day into the project. It works great for the gable end/rake angle cuts, odd sized cuts around window & door openings, outlets, and other wall penetrations. Leaving no dust what-so-ever. This item will save you a ton of time versus using any other type of cutting tools when installing cement siding at various locations. However, it is not a replacement for a standard 10" rip-saw you still need to cut straight clean edgess at the vertical butt-end joints between the horizontal panel runs. The only con I experienced with this is that it's difficult to cut tight curves. It is well made with quality materials and I can see this lasting for years to come.