Can I set an itemstack as NBT for my appraisal system?

Im creating a system where an item can be unidentified, appearing as a rusted object until the player places it on an appraisal table and pays the associated cost. I haven't found a good way to attach the data for the real item to the unappraised version though. I tried building an obscurifier to try and get an item ID as NBT aand attach it to an unidentified version but that didn't work either.