According to his children and friends, Mikhail Kalashnikov worked even during his free time. Therefore, his apartments, his summer cottage and his cars were filled with numerous original homemade devices. During their fishing and hunting trips, Kalashnikov’s friends and family often used things created by him.

For example, Kalashnikov came up with a special anti-theft lock and chains with blades for driving on a bad road for his first GAZ car, developed a smart door lock, which turned off the light when leaving a garage or shed. He designed a useful construction for hanging a pot over the fire, as well as a mangal (device for cooking shashlyk) and a special fork on a handle for cooking lamb.

The summer cottage on the bank of the Izhevsk Pond, that Kalashnikov received, was fully equipped by him. In the 1970s, household electrical equipment for gardening was in short supply in the Soviet Union. That is why Kalashnikov created his own version of a lawn mower. One of his favorite sayings was,

He believed that simplicity ensures the reliability and durability of an invention.

In the book of memoirs “Kalashnikov: My Friend, as I Know Him”, Valentin Sokolov wrote,

This simple lawnmower is based on an engine from a Soviet semi-automatic washing machine and wheels from a garden cart. Kalashnikov attached nine pointing curved metal teeth to the electric drive and placed the third wheel in the center of the cart. It could rotate and therefore gave the whole structure maneuverability.

A series of photographs have been preserved in the family archive that show Kalashnikov trying to remove the grass with his homemade lawnmower and demonstrating it to his friends, spouses Valentin and Serafima Sokolovs. An enlarged photograph from this series is displayed next to the mower itself.