Splitting is the presence of a long, thin matrix crack observed in laminates stacked with unidirectional plies. The importance of splitting has been highlighted several times in the literature to explain failure scenarios of open and, more rarely, filled hole CFRP coupon specimens. This failure mode also seems to play an important role in the increase of residual strength after fatigue that is sometimes observed in such specimens. In this study, a machining process is used to mill artificial splits at the boundary of holes for open and filled holes, and for single and double lap shear specimens. A significant increase of the quasi-static tensile strength (up to + 20%) is observed in open/ filled hole coupons and for double lap shear specimens. However, for single lap-shear specimens, the results are within the dispersion of the experimental results or lower.