when you trade weapons unless you NEVER had the weapon before the augments will vanish so if you have the hammer with none on it right now and then give it to someone who then levels it for you, when you recieve it back, it will revert to when you had it
neeegaaative - i started new game and passed some leveled up weapons from my completed file on primary gamer tag, to my new character on other gamer tag. the only thing that changed was it's appearance. when i checked weapon in sanctuary it had all augments leveled up. it started to take back it's appearance after reaching level 3.
you started a new game so you never had the weapons before on it, exactly like i said. you try giving weapons to someone whos owned an un augmented one it will revert.
i gave a maxed out chickbane to my new character, as soon as his hero weapons unlocked the chickenbane was also in the armory. as you can see on my avatar pic, the augment bars are all maxed out and the weapon has only 60 damage to start. it's appearance is just like the hero pistol when you first get it. the weapon didn't change much until i unlocked the 3rd level chest. the other weapons given to new character in the beginning, were the luminus pounder and avo's lamenation in which all augments were also maxed out. appearance and damage were also low.