I think if we looked we would find that most all yataghan blades,and most other swords are heat treated in this manner. There is no reason to harden the tang/blade transition area.
The karakulak underscores my point.
Basically ALL Balkan yataghan don't have integral bolster.
Karakulak and Ionian yataghan ALL HAVE integral bolster. These things were contemporary in the same geographic area.
The cutler/swordsmith separation brings more questions to mind.
We have early knives in Istanbul and Italy with integral bolster.
Then we have short sword yataghan in the Balkans without integral bolster.
At the same time we have big knife karakulak in Bulgaria and very long sword yataghan in Ionia (western Anatolia) with integral bolster. Who made the knives and who made the swords?
My thinking is that we're seeing commonalities between bladesmithing traditions ultimately associated with common populations, specifically the Yoruks of both Thrace and the Ionian coast.
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