I use to have nails that split and/or chipped easily but I seldom have the problem anymore because, I believe, I don't clip them.. For me, clipping brought it's own problems to include painful quicks and more splt fingernails. Was I clipping correctly? Who knows. But I switched to filing my nails only.

I no longer have the issues that clipping caused. More than that, by careful filing, once or twice a week I was able to shorten my nails much more than I could with a clipper. The nails on my fret hand are well below the fleshy tips/calluses of my fingers. Additionaly, the filing allows me better control of the shaping and the nails on my fret fingers are nice and straight across, i.e., as my fingers are parallel to the neck/strings so are my nails.

Two years of filing have resulted in shorter nails where they need to be short (fret hand) and longer nails where they need to me (finger picking hand). More importantly, they are way stronger and I seldom suffer a chip/split/break. I believe stopping the clipping and filing only has strengthened my nails.

One other hint -- olive oil can/should strenthen nails. I use to swab olive oil on my finger nails once or twice a week and leave it on for an half-hour. I think it helped. One thing for sure, I don't need to do that for my nails anymore. I do; however, apply olive oil to my cuticles to prevent hangnails.

YMMV. Good luck.

john

Lost in my memory is the source of this comment... it might be Keith Richards; 'We learned to play guitar to get girls, now we sit around and talk about our fingernails.'