Hey BJ, favor to ask - can you post a close-up if the little bow where the branch/knot was, or explain how you worked around it?
I have a similar problem on a stave and I also deduced that I need to just cut it off. In the process of chasing a ring around the bump that remains, but I am just not sure what to do with that hard, dark, plastic-like wood that was the base of the branch. Do you just leave it be or bore it out?