There's usually a reason why some things are not done, just as there are
reasons why some are.

The reason branch wood is not harvested as boards is that it makes horrible
boards. A nice beam, perhaps, or as Mike and George C.said, some nicely
figured bowls or other smallwork pieces. Prepare it in resawable short
slabs, occlusive coat on the ends for minimum loss to checks and let it warp
as desired.

In my experience, it is also important to resaw such wood oversize, give it
a few days to work out newly unbalanced stresses, then process for use.

For lumber, cut before the sap's up, certainly. For the health of the tree,
you might want to wait so it can muster healing prior to mold gaining the
upper hand. I'd ask a tree surgeon.

"Bob Flint" wrote in message
news

I have a big red maple tree that has a horizontal branch that is
threatening to rip the tree in half, so this spring
after the sap runs I'm going to cut it off. It is over 1 foot in diameter
at the tree, and extends straight out for
about 20 feet before bending up a bit and going another 20 or 30 feet. I
cut its twin off last year, and just an 8 foot
piece is too much weight for me to carry!

Shame to just cut it up and burn it, can it be used somehow for useful
maple wood?

Then the question - how do I process it?