Nik Rashidin Nik Hussein was a master hilt carver from Kelantan who I’ve mentioned before on this forum and who for many years was my friend and mentor. Unfortunately we lost him far too early, at the age of 46, due to multiple myeloma. However some months before he left us, despite ill health, we managed to travel to Pattani together to visit friends and see some of the best extant pieces in collections there. During a visit to a well known dealer in Narathiwat I dug out a badly abused but highly unusual keris with a very rare, almost unique sheath. It was missing its buntut and its hilt had severely split due to long neglect. Abang Din however loved the piece and insisted that I buy it, poor condition notwithstanding. Which I did, and once back in Kota Bahru duly handed it over to his brother Nik Rashidee to restore.
Months later Abang Din passed on and not long after I returned to Kelantan to pay my respects to the family. Although still grieving, Nik Dee still remembered to do the restoration work on my keris. However we had a small problem in that we did not have a hilt that suited the piece. And so, on an afternoon, sitting in Abang Dee's shop I spotted a loose hilt and sheath in the bottom of a case. Without much thought, I picked it up and plonked it on the aforementioned keris, showing it to Rashidee when he came back into the room.
I will never forget the look on his face..."David," he said, "Arwah Abang has been busy settling all sorts of unfinished business since his passing...people who had things of his have returned them, debts long forgotten have suddenly been settled...that hilt was carved for another keris but Arwah wasn't satisfied with the way it looked with the blade and sheath and asked me to return the blade to him some months before his passing. But that hilt, it fits your keris perfectly." And so it has remained with the keris and this is the keris which is my avatar. My final gift from my Guru...who now rests peacefully till the end of days.
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