A simple and convenient procedure for single-shot, single-spot ablation threshold measurement has been developed. It is based on the employment of cylindrical lens to obtain elliptical Gaussian laser spot. The ablated spot chords which are parallel to the minor axis were measured across the spot major axis which is proportional to the fluence cross-section thus providing wide range dependence of damaged spot size versus fluence in one spot measurement. For both conventional and new-developed procedures the ablation threshold for typical Nd:YAG laser parameters (1064 nm, 10 ns) has been measured as 50±5 mJ/cm 2 which is one order of magnitude lower than that for a bulk graphite. keywords: laser ablation, carbon nanotubes, laser ablation threshold PACS: 79.20.Eb Laser ablation; 78.20.-e Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films. A threshold for a laser-induced ablative material removal is a key governing parameter for a number of applications, such as a laser sampling for chemical analysis, a pulsed laser deposition of thin films, a new material synthesis, a coatings patterning, a laser machining and a laser systems development. Currently, several methods are used for evaluation of such laser ablation threshold: the ablative damage spot measurements [1-3] a detection of drastic ablative plasma emission appearance [4], a Langmuir probe and a mass-spectrometry detection of charged species yield [5].