Another good use for a draw knife.

[stabow]

Was getting 2 deer hides ready to tan so we lay-ed them over a log and used the draw knife to scrap the excess meat and fat off. It worked well, everything came off without much effort........stabow

[Charlie Lamb]

When you use it like that you have to call it a "fleshing knife".    Other wise Dean Torges will come running out of the woods and club you with an osage stave.  :D

[stabow]

Charlie, LOL.....stabow

[Juniper Bow]

As you probebly found out be careful of knots sticking out of the log, it could catch the hide and cause tears or you could run your "fleshing knife" over it and cut the hide. Some people like using a big piece of plastic pipe because it is very smooth and consistent.
 Also, when your done fleshing, you can flip that hide over and use the same setup for dehairing!