OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Blades for 'International' mower with B&S 3.5HP

Hello all, new user here!
Hoping you guys may be able to help me, I was given this 'International' mower which runs beautifully after I gave it a basic service. The only problem I have is finding new blades, as the current ones are knackered. I can't find any listing for an 'International' brand mower. Is this a model name under another manufacturer?
I have some pics to help out.





Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Simon

The International appears to be a private brand applied to a mainstream mower, so the blades will be generic. You could just take one of the blades (complete with it s mounting hardware) to a mower shop or discount auto shop and see what they have. Make sure you install a matched set, since they must all weigh exactly the same, including the pivot bolt etc. Your mower can be fitted with either 2 or 4 blades.

Most likely someone will be able to tell you what other name or names the mower was sold under, by recognising the base. The blades look extremely similar to the ones for my old 1976 Victa.

You can find out the age of your mower by giving us the engine code number: a very long series of numbers, in groups, stamped onto the red air cowl at the top of the Briggs & Stratton engine. The last block of numbers gives the date it was made. Looks to me like the first block of numbers might read 92908, and it might have been made before 1980, unless it turns out to be bigger than 9 cubic inches displacement. (The 9 cubic inch engines were de-rated to 3.0 hp in about 1980, when their maximum speed was cut from 3,600 rpm to 3,000.)

Thanks for that mate!
I'll whip the blades off tonight and take a trip over to Supercheap auto tomorrow morning and see how I go
Is there any advantage to running 4 blades? I've only got a small area to mow if it makes a difference.

I'll get the numbers off the cowl and post them up here, would be interesting to know how old this mower is.

Essentially, 4 blades can give you a finer finish or a faster mowing job (you can walk faster) provided your engine has enough power to drive them. Your blades have a rather short cutting length compared with some, so that might be an argument for running four - otherwise you'd have to walk a bit slower than with a longer blade at the same engine speed.

I think it is rather a minor point unless you are trying for a particularly fine finish, or you are in a hurry to get the job done and want to walk fast.

I think rover blades could go close to a perfect fit, I have 2 blades on one of my mowers and cannot tell the difference it does to my 4 blade ones apart from they wear ut a little quicker.

In that case I think I'll just stick with the 2. The lawn in question is pretty crappy looking and not totally flat anyway, so if I ever pretty it up a bit more I'll worry about a finer finish

Thanks for your great help!

Thanks Joe, looking at some blades on the internet before I did see some Rover blades that looked similar.

Hi simon,the rover blades come with new bolts/nuts/washers.in your case the blade plate has round holes where as the rover blade bolts have a half flat on the bolt which helps the bolt from turning in the blade plate when doing up the lock nuts.you can use the rover blades but might have to get NEW round nuts/bolts/washers.go to bunnings down the road from where you are,they also have a big selection of mower accessories...ken

Hi Ken, thanks for that!
I ended up picking up some Rover blades this morning, and strangely enough the holes where the existing blades were mounted had half flats so they fit perfectly!

I also threw in a new spark plug to replace the old fouled up one, and pulled apart the carb/fuel tank assembly and cleaned 20 years of grease and grass from it all.

This thing seriously runs like a new mower! So much more power now, and a much much cleaner job, and now the clippings actually go in the catcher and not all over the lawn

Thanks for all your help guys!

Glad it worked out tooch, I'll close the thread.