of the hard metal crystals is not required the result is an anisotropic material having a fine grain structure and a crystallographic orientation matching a tm x b phase formed during hydrogenation application_number US 52475205 A description the starting material can desirably be crystals that are already oriented and have a fine crystal size and a more homogeneous distribution of foreign phases e g oxides u03b1 fe nd rich phases borides with the known hddr method large grains and coarse deposition of unwanted foreign phases such as free iron or phases with a high rare earth content often having sizes in the range of several mm must be accepted but with the method described here a starting material with an average particle size of less than 1 mm a hard magnetic volume content of greater than 90 and foreign phases less than 0 5 mm in size are used magnetic scrap metal in particular is a starting material that is easy to process for use accordingly and meets these conditions using the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation and or desorption processes on such a starting material ultimately makes available a powder which preferably has particles smaller than 0 5 mm in size advantageously a bonded magnet can be produced from this powder in an orienting magnetic field offering an energy product bhmax of more than 10 mgoe 80 kj m 3 for example the magnet material is advantageously a permanent magnet material with a hard magnetic phase se 2 tm 14 b where se stands for a rare earth element including y and tm stands for a transition metal e g fe co or ni in.