Quote - The axis of the prop has been reset to the center of the object, when I had it on one end in MAX.  when I try to move the axis to its original position in Poser, it moves (very quickly) away from the parented hand, and changes shape and rotates.

First work out where the origin (center of rotation) of the prop needs to be in relation to the geometry of the prop. Import the prop's obj into an empty Poser document. Without translating, rotating, or scaling the prop, adjust it's origin to the desired location. You can now save the prop to a Props palette, or load a figure, parent the prop to the figure, position it as desired, then save it to a Props palette as a smart prop.

In other words, before you adjust the origin of a prop, it's translations and and rotations should be zero, and it's scale should be 100%.

If a parented prop deforms when rotated this is may be because part of the figure it is parented to is scaled, and the prop is inheriting the scale from the figure. If you used the "Inherit bends of parent" check box when parenting the prop, this could also be causing deformations.