I've had an idea for a mortal vigilante kind of like the Punisher/Kincaid but writ small who uses enchanted items. Would the character need magical energy to power them, or simply the know-how for the crafting rituals to use them?. I was thinking he could be a minor talent at highest, but I was curious about how far I'd be able to go with a plain vanilla mortal
Well... there's no "Pure Mortal" refresh-bonus, at least, even if his flavor-text says he's a mortal.
If his "schtick" is using magic-items, he isn't a "Pure Mortal" under DFRPG rules -- even if he's using Other People's Magic, HE is still the magic user, and so not a "Pure Mortal" from a game-mechanics perspective.
Now, you could write him up without any "magic" except the items, so as to not spend Refresh on those powers; he might use inherited items, or be the front-man for some entity/group that wants him armed that way, for reasons of their own... Hexenwolf Plus, as it were...