tcmtech, I thought I already explained this in a post aways back? The material is put in a large oven, it's heated to it's currie point, the magnetic field is applied via a large electric magnet and it's cooled to solidify the field orientation in the solid material. Depending on exactly where in the magnetic chamber a particular magnet is it's not going to have a N/S magnetic pole that is 100% perfectly aligned with the shape of the material. I'm guessing that is primarily what's causing the 'turn' depending on the side, because of Lenz law the produced magnetic field directly opposes the causing field, it only has to be off by a tiny fraction of a degree to cause it to gradually curve as it slides. You wouldn't be able to see this slight distortion in the orientation unless you went to some extreme degrees to measure the level of the magnetic and used photo software to determine exactyl where absolut true north was relative to iron powder or something of the like.