The magnetic anisotropies, defined as the difference in magnetic susceptibility perpendicular to the c‐axis and parallel to the c‐axis, &khgr;⊥c‐&khgr;∥c, of hcp scandium, dilute scandium‐base alloys with both magnetic and nonmagnetic solutes, and high purity technetium have been studied as a function of temperature between 2 and 300°K. The magnetic anisotropy of scandium is not affected by small amounts of nonmagnetic impurities such as cerium and thorium. The anisotropy changes drastically at low temperature when scandium is alloyed with the magnetic solutes gadolinium and dysprosium. The magnetic anisotropy &khgr;⊥c‐&khgr;∥cchanges sign from positive to negative at low temperature in theSc‐Gd alloys. The sign of &khgr;⊥c‐&khgr;∥cremains positive but increases by several orders of magnitude with decreasing temperature in theSc‐Gd alloys.