In my case, the item was an armored jacket, that the wizard wanted to provide him... But the wizard didn't have any refresh to spare for another refinement, and the refinement she had was tied up in enhancements.
He was a true faith build, so no issues with being a pure mortal, systems-wise. He was also the only one at the table with refesh to spare, and since he was going to be using the jacket full-time, they asked me if he could pay refresh for it instead.
Option 1: he takes a point of refinement that he funded on his lore of 1 (total item value 4, Armor:1 for 5 uses only by him)... He'd be better off with a concealable vest.
Option 2: she pays a point of refresh she doesn't have (or he pays 2 refresh so he can stunt a better lore trapping off another skill) and ends up with a lore 5 item (total value 8, which is Armor:3 usable 5 times by himself only, or 3 times by anyone). Not worth it either way (wiz becomes unplayable or he spent 2 refresh for it).
Option 3: he pays 1 refresh on her behalf somehow; benefitting from her Lore somehow despite it being his refresh and his item... Same as option 2, nut with shortcuts that left me uneasy.
Option 4: IoP inhuman toughness, with it being story fluff that it's an enchanted item from her. The Catch was that it didn't protect his face or legs (hoodie), so anything specifically targetting those would bypass it altogether. 1 refresh, and it has the RAW stamp of approval. The player and I agreed it seemed like our best choice.
I honestly couldn't come up with anything better short of inventing some new house rule without any real idea if it was balanced or not.
Some of what's been tossed around here sounds decent, but nothing strikes me as perfect... Yet.