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Hi

I am new to tiling and I have bought a set of tile nibblers or tile nippers; they look a bit like carpenters' pincers. The trouble is I can't seem to make them break the tile. I am using a 4 inch square ceramic tile 5mm thick.

Any tips?

They`re not supposed to `break` the tile, just to nip/nibble very small pieces a bit at a time till you get the desired profile.

I tiled my kitchen and bathroom and I used them a lot to break off strips of tile (i.e. <1") that had been scored well with a tile cutter first. I too thought thats what they were for Worked well, tiles were ceramic wall tiles. I found the best way is to keep the edge vey near the scored line, keep the rest of the tile on a flat surface and bend the cutters downwards, holding it tight. But I had to give it a rub with a tile file afterwards to straighten it up.

couldn't do it with floor tiles. So ended up buying a electric tile cutter. the cheap ones do the job for the DIY man stofts but blades blunt quickly

If you score the tile first, you will be able to gradually nibble the "waste" away. I would suggest that you try to take no more than 5mm chunks at a time until you have a lot more nibbling experience. Straight edges will often come away fairly clean and are easy, but internal corners and curves require a lot more patience.

You may want to get some free broken tiles from your local tile shop to practice with first.

Good luck.