OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Other Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers The Sempf Mower - Neo Vintage

I wonder if many other people made there own Mower back in the day, I know of this one, not sure what he said but I think there might have been a few more made (not many).






Sadly the builder has now passed away

Cheers everyone!

Kye, I remember when I was a pup my mums uncle would tell me stories about when he was a boy cutting the legs off the quail hiding in the grass. At a guess that would have been the 1930's it makes me wonder what he would have been using.

Hi Kye and SnB

Kye, I have moved this post to the customisation forum.
Do you know what decade this machine was said to be made?

Isn't that a bit gruesome?

Cheers Jack!
Can't confirm date yet, can't find the post! Might find it soon.
I think it was about 1970s. The name on it is Sempf by the way, it was the last name of the bloke who built it.

How do you just cut the legs of a Quail with a reel mower? sounds like something a Rotary would do.

Cheers Jack and Slash!

Hi Kye
Thanks for the clarification on the name. Sempf it is.

I have called this a neo-vintage in that it uses some parts from the 1950s,
and then much later parts. I am guessing no earlier than 1970s.
It seems quite well thought out and I'm glad someone saved it.

----------------------
Jack

Nothing unusual about cutting the legs off quails used to happen often when cutting hay on the farm. Kye the reference was when using a sickle type mowers. A number of children also lost their feet on farms

[KYE: I understand now Norm!! I thought it was about a reel mower, would have just cut the quail into a bunch of diced meat! Wouldn't have been fun to be hit with one of them!]

There are pics of some very similar mowers to the Sempf one in this past thread: https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=55055

I'd tend to agree with Deejay, that these were limited production units for a specific task. That is, mowing between graves. So they are known as cemetery or graveyard mowers.

Morning Gadge

I have linked both topics.
It may be a Grave mower, or another, unknown purpose.
It would be nice to know the cutting width, as Grave mowers
were about 12" wide - or not much more.

Perhaps from a small engineering works...
The finish is certainly not production quality, nor does
it explain the different age of component parts.

Two examples have been presented in the link (above).
(assuming the green one is not also the yellow one).

-------------------------
Jack

Finally we found it! I am pretty sure the post on Facebook said he made a few (which would have been about 10 or less I think) but I could be wrong, best to ask the new owner. Would make it a super rare mower if there are some more around the place.

It is defiantly not production quality, but it looks good enough to be used by a few local grave yards, wouldn't expect to see these in every backyard though.

Cheers Jack!

Thanks again Kye!
You have helped clarify a critical difference here ...

I guess the best description of these mowers is 'Limited Production'.
They should be made by a 'business' rather than a backyard Joe Blo.

This covers the myriad of small companies that did engage with garden
products and produced very small quantities.

We have recorded one of these in two topics - the Sempf.

---------------------
Jack