Boulsover's initial despair at ruining a customer's expensive knife soon turned to elation when he realised the significance and potential of his find. Boulsover experimented with his discovery of Sheffield Plate and found that when the silver and copper were fused together they could be treated as one metal, meaning that an ingot of copper fused with a layer of silver could be rolled to any area and thickness and still retain the same proportion of the two metals. This satisfied Boulsover that the fused metal could be modelled into any article and could be used on a commercial scale. Thomas Boulsover needed financial assistance to set up a business in fused plate and it came from Mr Strelley Pegge of Beauchief Hall who loaned him the necessary capital. He went into partnership with Joseph Wilson whose father was a scythe smith at Sharrow, setting up a workshop on Baker's Hill in Sheffield. The main product of the business was to make buttons from fused plate which would sell for only a fraction of the price of solid silver buttons. Boulsover's buttons were stamped from a die on a fused metal sheet, then cut out, polished and burnished until they were hardly distinguishable from genuine silver. The business also made buckles, spurs and small snuff boxes. Joseph Wilson left the partnership in the mid 1740s, setting up his own business at Sharrow Mills making Sheffield plate items before diversifying into manufacturing snuff for which the Wilsons became World-famous. In 1749 Boulsover rented a lease of land in Beeley Wood to build a grinding wheel, but an alteration to the original lease allowed it to be converted into a tilt forge known as the Nova Scotia Tilts. Thomas Boulsover repaid the money loaned from Strelley Pegge and continued his enterprise with the help of two apprentices, also hiring John Hoyland as an agent to promote the sale of his buttons. Unfortunately Boulsover did not take out a patent on his discovery of Sheffield plate and Hoyland set up a business of his own making buttons and passed the secrets of the process on to others. Despite this competition, Boulsover's button business thrived. In 1751 Thomas was elected as one of the 24 assistants to the Master Cutler, however even though he was re-elected as an assistant the following year he never rose any higher in the Company of Cutlers. In 1757