Fabrication of a biaxially textured, strengthened Ni substrate with small alloying additions of W and Fe is reported. The substrates have significantly improved mechanical properties compared to 99.99% Ni and surface characteristics which are similar to that of 99.99% Ni substrates. High quality oxide buffer layers can be deposited on these substrates without the need for any additional surface modification steps. Grain boundary misorientation distributions obtained from the substrate show a predominant fraction of low-angle grain boundaries. A high critical current density, Jc, of 1.9 MA/cm2 at 77 K, self-field is demonstrated on this substrate using a multilayer configuration of YBCO/CeO2/YSZ/Y2O3/ Ni–3at.%W–1.7at.%Fe. This translates to a Ic/width of 59 A/cm at 77 K and self-field. Jc at 0.5 T is reduced by only 21% indicating strongly-linked grain boundaries in the YBCO film on this substrate.