I just got 62.00 up and running on Ubuntu 9.10 and did this quick hand practice. I’ve never been a huge fan of bones, but I could see where they would be useful in helping to maintain arcs in motions like this. I kind of lose the arcs at the end of this sequence. Hopefully, I can get better at animating hands in Synfig, 'cause if I can figure out how to get hands right, I can probably do just about anything. 
youtube.com/watch?v=SVzWA3e9mO0
Matt