Advice for next step in restoring this sheath
I'm pretty new at leatherwork, so please dumb things down if necessary. I do have some basic leather tools, as well as some cleaners, some antique dyes edge finishers, and some of the other things like pro resist and tan-kote. (and someone told me to get some tokonole for the back, so got that too).
I am trying to restore it for my father now that the knife is done. I do plan to make a new sheath for the knife, but i really want to restore this with as much of its original pieces. Is the strap salvageable? Is there a way to properly restore it when the leather is cracking like that? Again, i don't mind the utility of it, but is there a way to clean it up some?
Also, the (i assume debossed) elk head has lost a lot of details. Are there ways to touch up on this and give it more dimension/depth again? I would like to try to also try to use the dyes to try to help the contrasts, but i dont know if that is advisable, or if i can, is there a proper technique? In my head i would like the edges of the sheath to be dark, then lightening up some befoe the dimensions of the design take on some darker color for it to stick out more. I'm also picturing it being rather glossy; is there a way to do that in this project?