Ring mail, mail, plate mail. 

 Hello 
 There is indeed several type of mail and again in different countries ended up calling them a different way. 

 All the historical mail I have seen is 1 in 4 or 1 in 6, oriental style as in Japanese and Moghul/ Mongolian, this done with flat or round rings. 

 Now if I say 1 in 4 to you how do you know if I am refencing the “European” 1 in 4 or kagomegata-gusari  futae-gusari, kame-ko-gusari (or the Indian equivalent) 

 Oriental mail organises the ring differently. The rings are flat on the fabric and they are linked but much smaller oval rings. There are several patterns. Regardless it is very different in construction from “European” mail. 
 My understanding, and I can be wrong, is that the Victorian used the tern ring mail to describe the European mail in opposition to the oriental way, which was called chain mail. 
 To be fair, it has good as anything yes the even the flat rings when mounted looks like a succession of rings and the oriental mounting look like a chain.  

 If you take some Moguls, Mongol and Islamic armour, some of them have the same oriental disposition and link small plate of metal. Those plates are separated by and attached to strip of mail.  

 Here is one link to Japanese mail 
 http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/katchu.html 

 The link in the French wiki 
 http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotte_de_mailles_annulaire 

 And the link to “plate mail” 
 http://www.quaibranly.fr/cc/pod/recherche.aspx?b=1&id;=70.2001.27.286# 

 Phil