The evolution, in the production of steels for gas pipelines, makes it possible to obtain materials with high yield strength and toughness. The properties of these steels with respect to the propagation and crack arrests during a cleavage fracture are studied here more particularly. An original experiment was developed which makes it possible, using the same test bar, to study the start, propagation and crack arrests. This experiment was then applied to a steel for tubes with ferrito-perlitic structure. The results show that the toughness at stopping is not a characteristic parameter of the steel properties at a given temperature.