The best way to do a spear is start off with the fist hand pose. Position the spear inside the fist where you want it then adjust the grip if necessary. When done parent the spear to the hand and you got it. I think what Jim was saying is that with a spear you'll probably need two hand poses. One for carrying the spear, arm down, tip foward and one for throwing. Those two actions would require different grips, i.e., for carrying, the knuckles would be out and the thumb-part of the hand toward the tip; for throwing, the knuckles would still be out but the hand is reversed...the pinky is toward the tip. He's saying it'd be easiest to save the prop once for each of these grips. And, of course, save each hand pose, too.