This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) on natural and artificial granular materials used for analogue modelling in the experimental laboratory of the Chengdu University of Technology (CDUT, China). Six samples, four types of quartz sands and two types of glass beads, have been characterized by means of friction coefficients µ and cohesions C. The material samples have been analysed at the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam in the framework of the EPOS (European Plate Observing System) Transnational Access (TNA) call of the Thematic Core Service (TCS) Multi-scale Laboratories (MSL) in 2017 as a remote service for the CDUT. According to our analysis the materials show a Mohr-Coulomb behaviour characterized by a linear failure envelope. Peak friction coefficients µP of the quartz sand samples range between 0.62 and 0.79 and µP of the glass beads between 0.61 and 0.64. Except for one quartz sand sample, peak cohesions CP of all materials are smaller than or around zero meaning that these materials are cohesionsless. All materials show a minor rate-weakening of 1-2 % per ten-fold change in shear velocity v.