Well, some good news. I asked a question some time ago regarding masking the rosewood binding. Somebody suggested polishing it so any bleed through would be easy to remove.
I used my set of micro mesh pads for the first time, going through all the grits to 12000, and it looks pretty polished, hey? It's hard to believe that rosewood is just raw polished timber!
[Edit: it was Andy40's suggestion. Thanks mate!]