Crossword Genius

Clumsily saw hairline crack at the edges (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hack

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'clumsily saw' is the definition.
'hack' can be an answer for 'saw' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'clumsily' bit.

'hairline crack at the edges' is the wordplay.
'hairline' becomes 'ha' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'at the edges' means to remove the middle letters.
'crack' with its middle taken out is 'ck'.
'ha'+'ck'='HACK'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hack that I've seen before include "Drudge, inferior writer" , "Chop - reporter" , "Ride" , "Chop roughly - mediocre journalist" , "Chop at hired horse?" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times (Crosaire) and the Irish Times.
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