A simple method of growing carbon nanotubes directly on nickel substrate without chemical pretreatment is reported. It is demonstrated that carbon nanotubes growth is directly affected by the roughness on the surface. Carbon nanotubes density is large in each growth zone observed on the surface; these zones being spread sparsely for coarse roughness of the surface. The density of carbon nanotubes decreases and the number of growth zones increases as the roughness on the surface is reduced. The above trend was not affected with C2H2 flow time changing from 10 to 2 min. A similar result was obtained using a Ni alloy as substrate, but the effect of surface roughness on the growth of CNTs was less pronounced. The CNTs grown on the Ni alloy were free of amorphous carbon and uniformly distributed.