I didn't want a free replacement, I don't have any confidence in the design after that. Was it bad heat treating or a bad design? Or both? Fortunately, it was only a few days since I bought it, the store let me return it.

I don't know much about metalurgy (does anybody?), but there was a strip of blue metal in the tang, about 1/2 inch from the base. Kind of the color you get when you hold something to the bench grinder a little too long. The metal towards the blade was brighter, towards the pommel was greyer. It would seem to me they tried to differentially heat treat it, with the pommel softer and tougher, and the blade harder and more brittle. But the crossover point should have been on the blade, not on the tang. But there was also an obvious stress point at the base of the tang, and that's where it broke. So, I think it broke because of both bad heat treating and a bad design.

It's all right, I am an engineer. Well, actually, a software engineer, but this is my lunch hour.