The trick that saved me was using a good square to check against the blade, not the fence. I kept adjusting the fence angle thinking it was the problem, but it was the blade tilt all along. Once I got a machinist square and set it dead on, everything started fitting like it should. Another thing was marking the saw base with a sharpie line at 45 and 90 degrees so I could see if it drifted over time. Also, I started checking the blade every time I change a board because those things can get knocked out of whack just from moving the saw around. Sounds like you're already past the hard part, once you know it's off you can actually fix it.

First off, that Silky saw is a good choice for a hand tool. But let me correct something about what Dave said. Cranes don't make you lose the feel for the tree's weight at all. If anything, they teach you more about weight because you have to think about the balance point and the rigging much more carefully than a straight rope job. I've been running a crane for removals for about twelve years now, and I've never once felt like it made me lazy. It just changes where you put your focus. Instead of fighting the tree piece by piece, you get to plan the whole thing like a puzzle where every cut matters even more because one wrong lift can mess up your whole day. Dave sounds like he learned on the job back when cranes were rare and expensive, so he never had to trust one. That's his loss, not yours.