Studded leather would be regular leather armor with steel studs or rivets in it. http://www.theinnerbailey.com/armorgothicbrn01.jpg Something to that affect (found it on google in less then 30 seconds). Chain shirt vs chain mail. When they say chain SHIRT, they mean it. It's the size of a t-shirt. So naturally a full chain MAIL, as in covers the entire body, long sleeves, down to the knees or lower, plus the accompanying bits such as shin plates, shoulder pads, helmet, and gauntlets, would most certainly provide better protection at greater weight. Banded mail is actually more akin to the japanese armor, where it was leather with steel bands (hence, banded) and small steel plates, held togethor by more leather. Brigandine was much the same, but it was usually leather with steel strips inside of it, similar to modern kevlar vests, but metallic.