Item abilities

Is there any way to add or remove abilities from items while in game?

change the item to an item without the ability

I was wondering if there was a command similar to "add ability to unit", only "add ability to item", but I guess not. Well, that shoots down my shortcut on item recipe system.

No, it isn't afaik. You can simply add these abilities to item's carrier and remove them when he drops the item.