Shagreen ray Shagreen ray The shagreen ray or shagreen skate or fuller's ray ("Leucoraja fullonica") is a species of skate in the family Rajidae. This ray is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from Murmansk, Russia through Norway, southern Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Celtic Sea, the northern North Sea and Skagerrak, to northern Morocco, including (infrequently) the western Mediterranean Sea and the Madeira Islands. It is absent from the shallow waters off England and Wales. Shagreen is a form of roughened untanned leather, typically dyed green and commonly made of the skins of sharks and rays. The common name "fuller's ray"
Shagreen as a fancy leather for book bindings, pocketbooks and small cases, as well as its more utilitarian uses in the hilts and scabbards of swords and daggers, where slipperiness is a disadvantage. In Asia, the Japanese Tachi, Katana, and Wakizashi swords had their hilts almost always covered in undyed rawhide shagreen, while in China, shagreen, whose use dates back to the 2nd century CE, was traditionally used on Qing dynasty composite bows. Typically the ears and the spaces above and beneath the grip were covered by polished shagreen (in which the calcified papillae are reduced to equal height and form