The aim of this work was to find the relationship between pyrolysis temperature of waste wood and adsorption ability of prepared charcoal for selected heavy metal ions and organic dye from aqueous phase. As the waste materials, the beech and spruce sawdust were used for this purpose. The pyrolysis at different final temperatures (400 - 700 °C) was investigated and the appropriate mass losses were determined by means of thermal analysis (Setsys Evolution, Setaram). The adsorption experiments were carried out in small amount, where 10 mg of charcoal was placed into contact with 10 ml of Cd(II), Cu(II) or methylene blue solutions. Langmuir model was used for determination of adsorption capacity.