I have a td recurve that has a 19" riser on it, I am thinking of building a 15" for it, but I mostly shoot longbows and love the sight window on the longbow, why is the sight window so tall on a recurve, is it for style only or does it serve a structural function? Thanks in advance for you info...
Just a theory here, but recurves generally have a greater depth from back to belly which strengthens the riser and allows for more cut-out of the sight window (to center shot) than what a traditional longbow does.
The TD recurve bows that I build have a 15 1/2" riser. The shelve starts 1" above the center of the grip and the site window is 2 1/4" tall and 1/8" past center. This work well for me.
My two cents.. The window is larger / higher because in the beginning a sight was used and you anchored at the corner of your mouth (typically) such as most of today's Olympic recurve shooter. If the window wasn't 5 inches or more you would not be able to aim the bow sight. When the first mass produced recurves where created they were trying to build a better more accurate alternative to the longbow and make a ton of money doing so. In my opinion that is exactly what they accomplished.
Ever watch the Olympic shoots? Those guys can shoot out to 90 meters with no problem. Try that with a longbow with no sights... I know I am going to get a whole lot of feathers ruffled with this comment but it is the truth!