Steve
I haven't built a lot of deflex handle selfbows and certainly not many as recurves. You need pretty good wood for that because all the reflex is heated in, the recurves more or less just get the tips back up to the handle. I like to start with at least 4 1/2" of reflex, better with 5 1/2", and if the wood is elastic enough I'll end up with 3"..
To be more precise it's actually partly true that a bow gets harder to draw because of wood tension.
