ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Tinkers, if attached to items, can safely go through the item vault and appear on the other side with the tinker still attached to the item, so if you stick a voratun crystal plating on a body armor then put it in the vault, it can come out of the vault on a different character and still have the crystal plating, though the tinker is unequippable, at least if you have a tinkering talent

I can see this being abused to give tinkers to a character who does not have access to the steamtech/physics or steamtech/chemistry categories