About & ownership
About Vaultwood Core™
Vaultwood Core™ is a material standard, held to published test values. It stands on its numbers, not on a name.
Vaultwood Core is a material brand and a written specification, held to a published bar and licensable to manufacturers who build to it. It stands on its numbers, not on a name.
The honest-broker mission
Vaultwood Core exists to name a premium core tier and hold it to numbers, so a buyer, specifier, or maker can ask one question, is the core built on Vaultwood Core, and get a real answer backed by test methods[2][4]. Vaultwood Core is a published specification: the bar is set out in the open and held to the same numbers by everyone who builds to it.
We do not claim to be a neutral certifier
Vaultwood Core does not claim to be a neutral certifier of other people's work, because the brand owner also builds finished products, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. The value is in the transparency of the bar, not in a claim of independence it does not have.
Specified, not invented
We did not invent MDF. Engineered wood panels are long-established materials with published grade standards and test methods[2][4][5]. What Vaultwood Core does is specify: it selects a premium tier of MDF and pins it to a defined range of density, strength, screw holding, and emissions, then requires the numbers be verified. The contribution is the specification and the discipline of holding to it, not a new chemistry. The spec in brief: premium MDF at 45 to 49 pcf, modulus of rupture above 4,500 psi, face screw withdrawal of 275 to 350 lbf, meeting EPA TSCA Title VI and CARB Phase 2, with no-added-formaldehyde options[7][8][11]. It is premium MDF, not HDF, because the goal is machinability and screw retention, not maximum density.
Why we can stand behind it
The specification is not theoretical. Every property in it is a measured value produced by a published test method, not a marketing adjective: density, modulus of rupture, and face screw withdrawal are all evaluated using ASTM D1037[4] and classified under ANSI A208.2[2], and emissions are held to EPA TSCA Title VI and CARB Phase 2[7][8]. A buyer can ask a supplier for those numbers and check them. Load ratings for finished products are set and tested by the manufacturers who build on the core, not by us.
Editorial and sourcing standards
Every number is cited or it does not go on the site; standards are named, not implied; where a claim is true but incomplete we keep it and add the caveat rather than delete the nuance; and legal claims, including the license vehicle and trademark classes, are provisional until confirmed with counsel, and we say so rather than overstate.
See the licensing program. Related: the FAQ and the glossary.