Thanks for the heads up guys.
I may just take it back for a refund.
I had much greater expectations for it. Considering the heft of the blade, I expected that it would have been much better than to break off cleanly. That is just simply poor metal composition.
Pot metal breaks.
Steel doesn't ordinarily. It'll typically bend.
Oh well, I still have my old Sheffield machete. I've hacked and beat stuff with it since I was a kid.
One thing to consider with cutlery is the heat treatment that determines hardness and toughness. They're both descriptive of a blade's durability, but in different ways.
A steel blade snapping rather than bending isn't necessarily a result of poor manufacturing; the most expensive, best built blade on the planet will snap if it has been hardened so much that it becomes brittle... but blades that hard are designed to be that way because they are for slicing, not impacting. Obviously your Carnivore was designed to be a high and frequent impact blade, not a slicer; so the fact that it snapped under what would be considered normal use for its design obviously points to it being defective.
Hardness represents the resistance to deformation from impacts and abrasion, as well as its ability to keep an edge... a primary quality for cutlery.
Toughness represents tensile strength, or the amount of force that can be applied to the object before it has a catastrophic failure; essentially its flexibility... also a primary quality for cutlery.
Unfortunately these 2 characteristics typically work against each other in cutlery; the harder you make the steel, the more brittle it gets, and hence is more susceptible to chipping, cracking, or outright snapping... a chipped edge or broken tip is a little more difficult and time consuming to repair. If you have a very low hardness rating the steel more easily absorbs pressure and will bend rather than break, but often returns to its original shape; also the edge might roll or dent, but won't chip off or break... it's more pliable. A compromised edge is more easily fixed and resharpened. However, it's much harder to get a really sharp edge on this blade, and it also has to be resharpened often... not cool when in the field trying to clean and dress an animal.
The trick is getting the perfect alloy and heat treatment that embodies the best combination of attributes of both hardness and toughness. Everyone wants a knife that can get and stay very sharp, but also one that can take a bit of a beating without failing. Ideally I try to buy blades that measure between 55 and 60 Rc; seems to be a comfortable medium for knife blades. If you look at ax heads, they typically only register 45-55 Rc hardness, because repeatedly impacting hard wood and knots would routinely chip harder, more brittle edges; while the softer steel would just roll, dent, or become dull, which is easily remedied. Basically, higher Rc for dedicated slicers, and lower Rc for designated beaters; although poor forging or heat treating can mean broken blades regardless.
Blades on certain kinds of cutlery, like real khukuris and swords like Katanas and Wakizashis, actually have different hardness ratings at different points of the same blade; very hard along the edges for superior edge holding and cutting power, but much softer along the spine so the blade has some flex and won't snap during high velocity, high energy impacts. After a battle is over the blade will obviously have chips and knicks in it; but the guy wielding the blade will actually still have one to repair around the campfire that night... can't fix a blade that has snapped in half during the fighting; and anyone that happened to during the heat of battle is probably dead anyway.
My Khukuri in 5160 carbon has an RC of 58-60 along its edge, 45-46 at its belly, and only 22-25 along its spine. The hamon on a Katana visually shows the area that has the higher hardness rating; maybe 58 Rc or so along its edge and only 40 or so along its spine. Even my Spyderco SALT has a higher Rc along its edge than its spine.