Great story. You must write it down. I agree that you dont must use ply
But i dont agree with you about plastic. See the pice i wrote by the "artikels"

But how to make sticks?
In wood it is diffecult to make 2 sticks that are exactly the same. You always have a favorite stick.
After times by wood always how exact they are made they will be differend. . ALso you must time after time paint those sticks. Thats the reason in my competion that you may not play with some sticks. Not feeling anything has nothing to do with wood or plastic

But this has nothing to do how you can make them.

If you made them from polyurethaan like me, At first you make 1 sticks and test it in the water. If its good you let it dry.(we also at that moment make those line on top off it. Those reduce the drag etc.
Then you can make a mold from it. After that you can easy make 1 or 20 or more exact the same sticks. That dont need any painting.

Easy to make. Iff you have a mold it cost 4 minuts to make a compleet stick. how exactly i do that i dont tell.
But it is hours less then making wooden sticks.(including painting and sanding)

Then if you want a hook or not. That depends off the technics you want to use. My teams almost everybody hase a hook (one exeption) Playing with a hook can be defensive but also offensive. It it how you play. Yes a hook gives a greater surface area. Thats why some sticks off my design having holes in them. A bigger stick has a small drag sideways by that. Thats not only for defenders a great thing.(i dont now how big a sabre is, but my own stick "sven h3, is 28 cm long, A big underwaterhockey stick , but smaller than the "fishstick" i thinkt thats a canadian or amerikan stick and is 29 cm long) Yes you can not give with the back off the stick some slapshots. But you can trown the puck with a hook and controll the puck easy with a hook. and shooting/flicking can also with the underside off the stick.

Thats why there will be never a final an best stick.
Some wants wood, some wants plastic.
Some wants a hook, some wants no hook.
Also the angle off the grip and the front side of a stick is what you want. A great angle make it easy to shoot very fast. But you dont have much control with your backside left. A smal angle gives a great control over the puck with the backside but shooting is not as easy.

By all it is what you want. Everybody that say "i have the perfect stick for everybody" do not now much about sticks and technicks.