Trying to figure out ways to make a pretty good hand, and this is the result.

http://filebox.me/view/927874

What do you think?

(click it once you see it again, and it will get smaller and won't rape your screen.)

The fingers are paper-thin for no apparent reason, his pinky in particular looks like a strip of bacon

I have difficulties explaining some of this stuff, so I made some notes on the picture itself instead
http://filebox.me/files/426767_Untitled-2.png

the angle of the arm looks really uncomfortable

Well the arm itself (not the fingers and the palm of the hand) I just randomly drew 2 lines going down, didn't really think about making it realistic as you showed me.
And I see what you mean by the fingers, the bones and shit.
Thanks, i'll work on that.

foshizzle, this should help you with how the hand should look while holding a sword in that position: http://www.pulseshift.com/theseus/view/1c9dfcb0-b0e/

the picture is a little big, but its awsome!