I've always read it a little differently. For me, say, if i got "Sharp Sword of the Wind 13", it gave the augment +1 to the usual +3 or whatever that a sword normally gives, for a total of +4. That's how I read that working out.
On the other hand, that's an excellent point about weapons, armor, etc, compared to standard equipment. I can only see it as a holdover from the edge rules from HW and the "combat as a focus" mentality that permeates many games, plus general need to get nitpicky with stuff from RQ rules.
Of course, maybe you should be looking at the weapon rules as an example towards how to treat normal equipment, that it effectively makes up about +1-10 difference between two sides with differing equipment. So, your Iron Chef sort probably has the best equipment(+10) and the normal chef has maybe +5 stuff.
Chris
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