A flint spear is available very early and is quite cheap, it serves as a precursor to the harpoon for skill even if you don't intend to use spears in main battles. It has a few, non-obvious uses.

A spear, thrown at the ground, immediately returns to hand and the sound it makes alerts mobs nearby, especially neckers and boars. This makes it quite useful for farming neckers for use in later recipes.

Further, if you want to practice blocking, particularly with tower shield vs multiple opponents, make a cheap wooden one, summon a few neckers and/or boars as above, and block them as they attack. Not only will it increase your skill, it will help you to get a good feel for the shield's area of affect, the way knockback works, and how valuable having something safe and solid at your back can be.. especially inner corners.