Vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCF) nano-materials such as carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers were directly grown on the surface of the stainless steel mesh pre-treated by reduction. The reduction of the stainless steel mesh by hydrogen formed small catalytic particles and large particles with bi-modal distribution on the metal surface. When the VGCFs were synthesized on the reduced mesh, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were dominantly grown from the small catalytic particles without supplying hydrogen gas. However, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were dominantly grown from the large catalytic particles with hydrogen.