We present a procedure to prepare single-crystalline, high-purity Cu(001) films (templates) suitable as substrates for subsequent epitaxial thin-film growth. The template films were grown in a dedicated molecular-beam epitaxy system on a Cr/Ag/Fe/GaAs(001) buffer layer system. Low-energy electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction were applied to determine the surface orientation and the epitaxial relationship between all layers of the stack. Post-annealing at moderate temperatures enhances the quality of the film as shown by low-energy electron diffraction and atomic force microscopy. X-ray photoemission and Auger electron spectroscopy confirm that no atoms of the buffer layers diffuse into the Cu film during the initial preparation and the post-annealing treatment. The completed Cu(001) template system can be exposed to air and afterwards refurbished by Ar+-ion bombardment and annealing, enabling the transfer between vacuum systems. The procedure provides suitable conductive thin film templates for studies of epitaxial thin films, e.g. on the magnetic and magnetotransport properties of Co and Ni based films and multilayers. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.