I second Rick's recommendation for elmers white glue with the rattan. Can easily be removed, not as water soluable as fish glue, but warm water and some elbow grease can remove it.
As for repairing the hilt wrap. Sounds like a good plan to leave it alone. However, if it was in real bad shape, you can back up the fibers by using really really diluted super glue (dilute with acetone). When done right, it should re-inforce the fibers to prevent future decay, but since it is clear should not interfere with the look of the piece. Just make sure it is thinned out enough, so that the fibers can actually absorb the glue and not just sit on the surface.
As for pitch/lacquer. There is one guarantee, it will look new. I generally wont re-lacquer unless Im doing a new wrap. Ive found pitch to work better on coarser wraps, like thick jute cord or wire wraps. But for the thinner wraps, black lacquer gets absorbed rather well, and really tightens up the wrap. However, since its new its bright and shiny. Not really great for spot repairs either, since the spots would be real bright and shiny. So, really something that works best if redoing the whole thing.
Anyways, nice kris. Ive seen alot of the bigger bladed kris from sulu given a 1950s-60s date in some catalogs (well we know which ones). Cant say if its a trend, or just coincidence.
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