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In this paper, an attempt is made to find some general relations for the microcuttingprocess in brittle or quasi-brittle materials, under different hypotheses of microscopicfailure behaviour. Fracture patterns in homogeneous brittle solids are obtained by the FiniteElement Method in the framework of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). On the otherhand, microstructural heterogeneities are taken into account by Lattice Model simulations.When two indenters are acting in parallel, their mutual distance plays an important role. Ifthe indenters are very close, they behave like a unique large indenter, whereas if the distanceis relatively large, their mechanical interaction vanishes. In addition, when the distance isapproximately three or four times their radius, the mechanism of chipping (with formation ofsecondary chip between the two parallel grooves) can take place, improving the ratio of removedvolume to spent energy and then the demolition ability of the two indenters.