Produces saw, primarily to handle poles (6)
I believe the answer is:
spawns
'produces' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'saw primarily to handle poles' is the wordplay.
'primarily' says to take the initial letters.
'to handle' becomes 'paw' (paw can mean to touch or handle).
'poles' becomes 'NS' (north and south poles).
The first letter of 'saw' is 's'.
's'+'paw'+'ns'='SPAWNS'
(Other definitions for spawns that I've seen before include "Makes large numbers" , "Of fish, lays eggs" , "produces offspring" , "Leads to man" , "Deposits eggs like fish or frogs." .)