To elaborate on the deflex in the handle. I personally find there is no set rule, hence the suggestion to keep it flexible. I have had a few people ask me how many degrees of deflex does my bow have. Well I could never answer that question because I don't measure it and I probably have no 2 deflex bows that are alike anyway. It doesn't seem to make any difference in performance, except for when there's a lot of deflex but that's another story. I've been able to coax high performance out of straight handle recurves as well as deflexed handle bows. The thing with the deflex is that you can make a bow a bit shorter for a given draw length, I also happen to like the looks better now. The highly deflexed bows can be made somewhat shorter but then the bow suffers from other issues that affect performance.
As to the hooks. I used to like big hooks, for looks and I thought performance. My thinking change many years ago, even in so far as liking the looks as well. I now prefer small recurves for looks and they have other benefits. First of all it is much easier to tiller a bow with small hooks and there may be a slight performance benefit, that one would be hard to prove though.
Pity you can't thin the Bamboo, it is too thick. Quite frankly I prefer a wood backing for Yew, Maple or Ash
