Your Hands Have Done Enough: Meet Makita’s New Pruning Shear

Some tools help you finish a job. Others make you wonder why you spent years doing it the hard way.

Anyone who has pruned trees, shrubs or vines for more than an hour can tell you what happens. Your hand gets tired, your forearm starts burning and every branch feels thicker than the last one. Traditional pruning shears work, but after a few hundred cuts, you start questioning every landscaping decision you have ever made.

The new Makita 18V LXT Brushless Cordless Pruning Shear takes that repetitive work off your hands, literally.

The XPU01 cuts branches up to 1-3/16 inches thick using a sharp bypass blade. Instead of squeezing a pair of hand pruners over and over, you line up the branch and pull the trigger.

The blade automatically opens after each cut, helping you move quickly from one branch to the next. Four blade-opening adjustments, 3/8, 11/16, 1 and 1-3/16 inches, let you match the opening to the branch size. If you are trimming smaller growth all day, the blade does not need to travel through its full range every time.

Built-in motor sensing monitors the cutting load, while the trigger gives you direct control over blade movement. That combination provides the speed of a motorized tool without making the cut feel uncontrolled.

Makita tells us that the XPU01 can make up to 2,400 cuts per charge when cutting 5/8-inch branches with an 18V LXT 2.0Ah battery. At only 1.7 pounds without the battery, it is light enough for repetitive work without feeling like you are carrying another chainsaw around the property.

The brushless motor improves efficiency while reducing maintenance. An external oil port also lets you lubricate the blade without taking it apart. The LED display shows battery status and provides low-battery, overload and high-temperature warnings.

Makita’s XPT construction gives you much better dust and water resistance for outdoor working conditions. That does not make the tool waterproof, but it helps it handle the dirty, damp environments that come with landscaping.

This is a serious upgrade for:

1. Professional landscapers
2. Orchard and vineyard crews
3. Nurseries and grounds-maintenance teams
4. Property owners with trees, shrubs or acreage
5. Anyone who regularly performs large pruning jobs

Makita specifically designed the shear for demanding work across orchards, vineyards, nurseries and landscape maintenance.

If you trim one small bush every summer, hand pruners are probably enough. If you spend hours cutting hundreds of branches, this tool can save time and spare your hands.

The XPU01 is sold as a bare tool, so the battery and charger are not included. That makes it especially convenient for anyone already using Makita’s 18V LXT platform.

Your hands have put in enough overtime. Let the motor handle the squeezing.