Serrated chips with regularly spaced shear bands (RSSBs) are commonly observed in the microcutting of non-ferrous materials with diamond tools. This paper investigates the chip morphology with RSSBs produced in the orthogonal microcutting of cold-rolled brass. The reasons why Merchant's model and its modified versions fail whenever RSSBs evolve are critically discussed. This paper proposes a generalized model based on the theory of elastic strain induced shear bands where Merchant's model and its derivatives are construed as special cases. ; Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering