Thanks for the input. As suggested, I painted two coats of shellac on the edge of the fretboard and headplate, trying to cover the edge of the maple layer without getting (too much) shellac on the mahogany neck. Then I scraped the mahogany neck with a razor blade up to (as best I could) the edge of the maple layer. Today, also as suggested, I masked the shellacked surface using Frog Tape and applied the ebonizing solutions. They work almost immediately, so I now have results.
The efforts to protect the maple from ebonizing were mostly successful. Only about 5% of the maple was discolored (turning black or grey). But out of ~60" of binding there are around 3" (in sections ranging from 0.05" long to maybe 0.25" long) that required scraping, and some still didn't come clean. (The ebonizing fluids revealed the layered, fibrous structure of the maple lam on the ebony binding and the end grain of the maple on the headplate veneer.) Scraping was challenging because as the blade touched the mahogany it removed the ebonizing, leaving a thin brown line.
So now I have a neck that looks quite nice from a distance or with casual handling -- but I know better. I have friends who build custom cars; this would be described as a 10/10 solution -- looks great from 10 feet away at 10 mph. I'm hoping that applying the final finish will elevate the neck to a 5/5 solution.
But it is good enough that I've abandoned thoughts of Plan B (and it's clearly too late for Plan C).
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