When to remove basal sacrifice branches from older Black Pine?

[Steveolson]

Bought this guy, field grown 25ish year old JBP from Steve at Lone Pine Gardens last week - love that place! Planning on eventually removing all the nubs and branches coming out of the base as well as some wedge cuts to the main branch to add movement, bring it down and make a more compact design.

My main question (and sorry it’s hard to see from the pictures) is that one of those basal branches has about 40% of the foliage - so wondering if I should leave that for a year or so to help it recover from the wedge cuts and bending?

Or, should I remove it along with moving the big branch down?

 

[Shibui]

From my experience with pines, low branches don't contribute significantly to growth or recovery of branches above. More the opposite here. If a higher branch is significantly damaged, the lower branches grow faster and better and may take away from the branches above.
I can't see your tree well enough to fully ascertain relative strength and vigour but I'd most likely remove the lower sacrifice branches before or with any surgery to the main trunk.