Buckeye hinging

[Jehinten]

I've got a Buckeye tree to remove with some backlean and limb weight over a fence and deck, and near a home. It's not a large tree and I have plenty of pulling power to overcome the lean, but I'm not sure I've ever felled a Buckeye before.

What kind of hinge wood should I expect at the stump? I did polesaw a couple of limbs off from over the deck and found them to not hinge much at all.

I'm leaning towards a wide open notch and a thicker hinge to play it safe, then thin the hinge as needed for the pull.

 

[ATH]

It is weak wood, but I've not found it brittle - it has some flexibility. More like Basswood/less like Pear I think is what I'm trying to describe. But may behave differently when frozen. Not sure I can say I have experience with frozen Buckeye???

 

[Keeth]

I don’t recall dealing with a frozen buckeye, but I felled around 20 on my property a couple of years ago and they hinged well. Thickening the hinge is probably unnecessary. When you do that, a lot of your effort goes into bending the tree. I bet you’ll be fine setting the hinge at 10% and folding it over like normal.

 

[Jehinten]

Thank you both of you for your insight. I knocked it out today with no issues. It hinged well, but is definitely a soft wood. Temps was about 50° today, so no frozen trees today.