When I split or break a solid, the act reverts the material to "User Assigned Material" (or phrasing similar to that). This is frustrating. Is there something i am overlooking?

I want to retain the material/mass properties because it's possible i may want to rejoin the parts (not necessarily do an "undo", as i may be many steps along past the split of the solid) and then resplit them. Doing this in the context of having to reedit the properties is time consuming. (Is this behaviour the same in VC6 Pro? I have yet to find out because i have yet to find a link to VC6 Pro....)